Parag Khanna

THE WORLD´S LEADING GLOBAL STRATEGIST.

Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap. Founder & CEO, Climate Alpha.

Parag Khanna speaker, strategist, keynote speech

"Connectivity is the most important asset class of the 21st century - but you can only capitalize if you understand the geopolitical, geoeconomic and technological forces shaping the global landscape."

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Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is Founder & CEO of Climate Alpha, an AI-powered analytics platform that forecasts asset values to future-proof global real estate, and Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. Parag’s newest book is MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us (2021), which was preceded by The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019). His books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

 

Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.”

 

Parag has been an adviser to the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends program. From 2013-2018 he was a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. From 2006-2015, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. During 2007, he served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a senior geopolitical adviser to United States Special Operations Forces. From 2002-5, he was the Global Governance Fellow at the Brookings Institution; from 2000-2002, he worked at the World Economic Forum in Geneva; and from 1999-2000, he was a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

A widely cited global intellectual, Dr. Khanna provides regular commentaries for international media. His 2008 cover essay for the New York Times Magazine titled “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony,” is one of the most globally debated and influential essays since the end of the Cold War. Khanna’s essays, reportage, and columns have appeared in major international publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, TIME, Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, Popular Science, Axios, Forbes, The Atlantic, Quartz, Foreign Policy, Noema, Harper’s, BusinessWeek, The Guardian, The National Interest, McKinsey Quarterly, The American Interest, Global Policy, Stratfor, Esquire, Slate.com, and Die Zeit.

Likewise, Parag Khanna also appears frequently in media around the world such as CNN, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera and other broadcasters. In 2010, he became the first video-blogger for ForeignPolicy.com and from 2010-12, co-authored the Hybrid Reality blog on BigThink. From 2008-9, Parag was the host of “InnerView” on MTV. He was a consultant to the National Geographic series Origins. Khanna spoke at TED in 2016, TED Global 2009, was a guest host of TED Global 2012, and lead speaker at TEDxGateway in 2018.

 

His TED talks have been viewed more than three million times. The maps customized for Dr. Khanna’s books have been displayed in numerous prestigious international art exhibitions.

 

Parag Khanna lectures frequently at international conferences and gives tailored briefings to government leaders and corporate executives on global trends and scenarios, systemic risks and technological disruptions, and market entry strategies and economic master planning. He has provided expertise to many governments including the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, UK, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Italy, Estonia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mongolia, Bhutan, Chile, Malta, and numerous others.

 

In 2016, he served on the Singapore government’s Committee on the Future Economy and currently sits on the UAE Ministry of Economy’s International Advisory Council. He also currently serves as a senior advisor to Gulf Capital, sits on the board of directors of the Out of Eden Walk, and as a member of the advisory boards of GeoQuant, Graticule Asset Management Asia (GAMA), Datarama, and Henley & Partners, and previously on the Innovation Advisory Board of DBS Bank and Globality.

 

Dr. Khanna holds a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In 2017, he was awarded a Richard von Weizsaecker fellowship of the Robert Bosch Academy. He has been a Senior Fellow of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Distinguished Visitor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly, Visiting Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Non-Resident Associate of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, and a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

 

He has received grants from the United Nations Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, and Ford Foundation.

 

Parag Khanna has been honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and has served on the WEF’s Global Future Council on Mobility, Global Agenda Council on Geoeconomics, and advisory board of its Future of Urban Development Initiative. He also serves on the board of trustees of the New Cities Foundation, Council of the American Geographical Society, advisory board of Independent Diplomat.

 

He is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In 2002, he was awarded the OECD Future Leaders Prize. 

 

Born in India, Parag grew up in the United Arab Emirates, New York, and Germany. He is an accomplished adventurer who has traveled to nearly 150 countries on all continents. He speaks German, Hindi, French, Spanish and basic Arabic.

Global Scenarios for the Post-Pandemic World.

The two words that best capture the post-pandemic world are “continental drift.” The global economy is rapidly becoming more regional. Globalization continues in many areas such as commodities, capital flows, and digital services, but from energy to electronics, North America, Europe, and Asia are becoming more self-sufficient through trade agreements and industrial policy aimed at controlling the supply chains. At the same time, a new era of competitive connectivity has begun as the tug-of-war heats up between China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the West’s “Build Back Better World” (B3W) agenda. Drawing on the copious research presented in his acclaimed book Connectography, Parag Khanna provides cutting-edge insights into the geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geotechnological shape of the future, with specific recommendations on how and where to invest in a volatile world.

The Global War for Young Talent.

The lasting impact of the pandemic will be both demographic and geographic. We are reaching “peak humanity,” a global population not likely to cross nine billion people, but most of the world’s people are still young -- and as they vote with their feet, they determine the winners and losers of the 21st century. Countries are now vigorously competing in a global war for youth to attract the taxpayers, workers, homeowners, and entrepreneurs of the future. Companies must do the same -- but in a remote working world, millennials and Gen-Z are a moving target. How can corporations attract young employees to headquarters while also building a decentralized workplace culture? Drawing upon the insightful research from his latest book MOVE, Parag Khanna presents the world from the standpoint of the youth who will define it, guiding your talent acquisition and retention strategies for the years ahead.

Climate Adaptation: This Century’s Highest Priority.

Deadly disasters are intensifying, with ever greater costs to societies everywhere. Rising sea levels and floods, droughts and heatwaves, cyclones and forest fires, cause upwards of $200 billion in damage annually. Climate refugees now outnumber political and economic migrants. The world will not only be hotter but also more violent, with conflicts over food and water, and uncontrolled mass migrations. That is why climate adaptation must be every nation and company’s foremost priority. This includes fortifying and redesigning our homes and buildings, investing in renewable energy and resilient food production, and relocating our businesses, citizens, and workers to more stable habitats. The climate will not adapt to us; we will have to adapt to it. Drawing up FutureMap’s proprietary Climate Alpha software, Parag Khanna provides tailored analysis of the locations across the globe best suited to your business requirements and guides you in creating a tailored strategy for climate resilience.

The Future is Asian: Billions of People, Trillions of Dollars.

Asia remains the world’s growth engine, representing more than half the world’s population and fifty percent of global GDP. China is neck-and-neck with the US as the top destination for foreign investment, and has accelerated its quest for technological autonomy and expanded use of its currency. Meanwhile, the world’s largest trade agreement -- Asia’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) -- has come into effect. The next chapter of Asia’s economic story is also being written by the “fourth wave” regions of South and Southeast Asia, with countries such as India and Vietnam delivering the world’s fastest growth and taking the lead in new unicorn companies. As the author of the landmark book The Future is Asian, there is no better guide than Parag Khanna to the geography that drives the world economy.

MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us.

In the 60,000 years since people began colonizing the continents, a recurring feature of human civilization has been mobility—the constant search for resources and stability. Seismic global events—wars and genocides, revolutions and plagues—have only accelerated the process. The map of humanity isn’t settled—not now, not ever.

As climate change tips toward full-blown crisis, economies collapse, governments destabilize, and technology disrupts, we’re entering a new age of mass migrations—one that will scatter both the dispossessed and the well-off. Which areas will people abandon and where will they resettle? Which countries will accept or reject them? As today’s world population, which includes four billion restless youth, votes with their feet, what map of human geography will emerge?

MOVE provides an illuminating and authoritative vision of the next phase of human civilization—one that is both mobile and sustainable. In the years ahead people will move to where the resources are and technologies will flow to the people who need them, returning us to our nomadic roots while building more secure habitats. MOVE is a fascinating look at the deep trends shaping the most likely scenarios for the future. Most important, it guides each of us as we seek our optimal location on humanity's ever-changing map.

MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us.

THE FUTURE IS ASIAN.

In the 19th century, the world was Europeanized. In the 20th century, it was Americanized. Now, in the 21st century, the world is being irreversibly Asianized.

The “Asian Century” is even bigger than you think. Far greater than just China, the new Asian system taking shape is a multi-civilizational order spanning Saudi Arabia to Japan, and Russia to Australia—linking five billion people through trade, finance and infrastructure networks that together represent 40 percent of global GDP. China has taken a lead in building the new Silk Roads across Asia, but it will not lead it alone. Rather, Asia is returning to the stable multipolar order that existed long before European colonialism and American dominance, with India and Southeast Asia coming into their own as economic and strategic hubs. Large but dormant societies from Iran to Indonesia are finally emerging, teeming with young and urban, ambitious and entrepreneurial youth, while from Saudi Arabia to Vietnam, privatization is unlocking a new wave of growth. Asians are sharing economic and governance models as never before, and their confident outward push is reshaping business and culture life across North America and Europe, South America and Africa. From investment portfolios and trade wars to Hollywood movies and holiday travels, no aspect of life is immune from Asianization.

The world has gotten used to hearing “America First”—but is it ready for “Asia First”? What happens when Asia no longer just produces for the West but the West produces for Asia? And when Asians don’t aspire to live like the West but rather Western societies wish they had Asians’ stability and far-sighted leadership? Get ready to see the world, and the future, from the Asian point-of-view.

Dr. Parag Khanna’s latest book The Future is Asian presents this irrepressible global Asianization through detailed analysis, data and maps of Asia’s major markets and their combined impact on global economy, society and governance. With his trademark conceptual clarity and on-the-ground reportage, Khanna provides essential guidance for executives as they look to hedge their China exposure and capture the next big commercial opportunities across Asia from real estate and retail to finance and technology, and attract Asian capital and talent into their operations at home and abroad. With his intimate knowledge of Asian history and geopolitics, he also paints a compelling vision of a balanced global system of shared responsibilities across America, Europe and Asia. Following on the heels of his pioneering trilogy that concluded with the revolutionary Connectography (2016), The Future is Asian will similarly serve as a global strategic roadmap for decades to come.

THE FUTURE IS ASIAN.

CONNECTOGRAPHY: MAPPING THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

In this book Parag Khanna guides us through the emerging global network civilization in which mega-cities compete over connectivity more than borders. His journeys take us from Ukraine to Iran, Mongolia to North Korea, Panama City to Dubai, and the Arctic Circle to the South China Sea—all to show how 21st century conflict is a tug-of-war over pipelines and Internet cables, advanced technologies and market access.

Yet Connectography is a hopeful vision of the future. Khanna argues that new energy discoveries and innovations have eliminated the need for resource wars, global financial assets are being deployed to build productive infrastructure that can reduce inequality, and frail regions such as Africa and the Middle East are unscrambling their fraught colonial borders through ambitious new transportation corridors and power grids. Beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart is a new foundation of connectivity pulling it together.

CONNECTOGRAPHY: MAPPING THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

TECHNOCRACY IN AMERICA

American democracy just isn’t good enough anymore. A costly election has done more to divide American society than unite it, while trust in government—and democracy itself—is plummeting. But there are better systems out there, and America would be wise to learn from them. In this provocative manifesto, globalization scholar Parag Khanna tours cutting-edge nations from Switzerland to Singapore to reveal the inner workings that allow them that lead the way in managing the volatility of a fast-changing world while delivering superior welfare and prosperity for their citizens.

The ideal form of government for the complex 21st century is what Khanna calls a "direct technocracy," one led by experts but perpetually consulting the people through a combination of democracy and data. From a seven-member presidency and a restructured cabinet to replacing the Senate with an Assembly of Governors, Technocracy in America is full of sensible proposals that have been proven to work in the world’s most successful societies. Americans have a choice for whom they elect president, but they should not wait any longer to redesign their political system following Khanna’s pragmatic vision.

TECHNOCRACY IN AMERICA

HYBRID REALITY: THRIVING IN THE EMERGING HUMAN-TECHNOLOGY CIVILIZATION

What human civilization needs more than anything is not greater IQ or EQ, but TQ: technology quotient. In their manifesto Hybrid Reality, husband-and-wife team Ayesha & Parag Khanna explores the frontier of the information revolution: The Hybrid Age. In this era of disruptive technologies, accelerating change, and deep anxiety about the future, the Khannas explain how the “balance of innovation” has superseded the military “balance of power” as a measure of national potential, and provide a global tour of how the smartest countries, cities, and companies are harnessing new technologies to gain an edge. Each of us also needs better TQ to adapt to a future in which robots are normal social actors in our lives, healthcare becomes a vehicle for physical enhancement, academic pedigree dissolves in a global skills market, and virtual currencies enable tax-free transactions.

Whether the future is a dystopian global class struggle over technology or a Pax Technologica of transparency, access and equity will depend on spreading TQ above all else.

HYBRID REALITY: THRIVING IN THE EMERGING HUMAN-TECHNOLOGY CIVILIZATION

HOW TO RUN THE WORLD: CHARTING A COURSE TO THE NEXT RENAISSANCE

The world is entering a perfect storm of calamities: a great game for scarce natural resources, financial instability, environmental stress, and failing states. In some respects, it isn’t far off from that medieval landscape of almost a millennium ago. It is a multi-polar, multi-civilizational world in which every empire, city-state, multi-national corporation or mercenary army is out for itself. Esteemed adventurer-scholar Parag Khanna’s How to Run the World is a bold account of our current global chaos and a road-map for creating a truly resilient and stable world.

Winner of the 2011 Antico Pignolo Prize (Venice)

HOW TO RUN THE WORLD: CHARTING A COURSE TO THE NEXT RENAISSANCE

THE SECOND WORLD: HOW EMERGING POWERS ARE REDEFINING GLOBAL COMPETITION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

"Khanna, a widely recognized expert on global politics, offers a study of the 21st century's emerging geopolitical marketplace dominated by three first world superpowers, the U.S., Europe and China. Each competes to lead the new century, pursuing that goal in the third world: select eastern European countries, east and central Asia, the Middle East Latin America, and North Africa. The U.S. offers military protection and aid. Europe offers deep reform and economic association. China offers full-service, condition-free relationships. Each can be appealing; none has obvious advantages. The key to Khanna's analysis, however, is his depiction of a second world: countries in transition. They range in size and population from heavily peopled states like Brazil and Indonesia to smaller ones such as Malaysia. Khanna interprets the coming years as being shaped by the race to win the second world—and in the case of the U.S., to avoid becoming a second-world country itself. The final pages of his book warn eloquently of the risks of imperial overstretch combined with declining economic dominance and deteriorating quality of life. By themselves those pages are worth the price of a book that from beginning to end inspires reflection." - Publishers Weekly

THE SECOND WORLD: HOW EMERGING POWERS ARE REDEFINING GLOBAL COMPETITION IN THE 21ST CENTURY