Living the Asian Century

An Undiplomatic Memoir

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By Kishore Mahbubani

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$19.99

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In this stirring memoir, a preeminent politician and diplomat traces the transformation of the Republic of Singapore from a poor colony into an Asian powerhouse

Growing up in poverty in the 1950s, Kishore Mahbubani expected to become a common textile salesman after finishing high school. Instead, a government scholarship sent him to the University of Singapore, and four years later he found himself in the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, almost none of Mahbubani’s cousins, scattered around the world after India’s brutal partition, from Guyana to Hong Kong, would complete university.
 
During this same period, Singapore itself was undergoing a metamorphosis. Granted internal self-governance in 1959 and achieving full independence six years later, the country came of age alongside Mahbubani. And as his star rose, so did the nation’s.
 
In Living the Asian Century, Mahbubani vividly chronicles his own life going from a poor childhood in a multiethnic neighborhood to an illustrious diplomatic career that led him far from Singapore, from Cambodia to Australia, Malaysia to the United States and the UN—including the pinnacle of influence, the Security Council.
 
Along the way Mahbubani has become one of Asia’s most widely known commentators and spokespeople, with a unique perspective that straddles India, China, and the West.

Genre:

On Sale
Aug 20, 2024
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781541703049

Kishore Mahbubani

About the Author

Kishore Mahbubani is a veteran diplomat, student of philosophy, and celebrated author, he is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute. His careers in diplomacy and academia have taken him from Singapore’s Chargé d’Affaires to wartime Cambodia (1973-74) and President of the UN Security Council (Jan 2001, May 2002) to the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (2004-2017).

Mahbubani writes and speaks prolifically on the rise of Asia, geopolitics and global governance. His seven books (including his latest Has the West Lost It?) and articles in the New York TimesWashington PostFinancial Times and Foreign Affairs have earned him global recognition as “the muse of the Asian century.” Since his 1998 debut Can Asians Think?, he has challenged conventional wisdom on the big questions of our time.

Mahbubani has been listed among the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines and among the Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism by the Financial Times. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2019. More information can be found on http://www.mahbubani.net.

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