Parag Khanna

Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is the Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data, and scenario-based strategic advisory firm. Parag’s newest book is The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century(2019). He is the author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). 

He is also the author of Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State(2017) and co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). 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 2030 program. From 2013-2018 he was a Senior Research Fellow at 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. 

In 2007, he served as a senior geopolitical adviser to the United States Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. 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 story for the New York Times Magazine, "Waving Goodbye to Hegemony,” is one of the most globally debated and influential essays since the end of the Cold War. In addition to his columns as a CNN Global Contributor, Khanna’s articles have appeared in major international publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, TIME, Foreign Affairs, Axios, Forbes, The Atlantic, Quartz, Foreign Policy, Harper’s, BusinessWeek, The Guardian, The National Interest, McKinsey Quarterly, The American Interest, Stratfor, Esquire, Slate.com, and Die Zeit. He is a contributing editor to WorldPost and serves on the editorial board of Global Policy.

Dr. Khanna also appears frequently in media around the world, such as CNN, BBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera, and other broadcasters. In 2010, he became the first video blogger for ForeignPolicy.com, and from 2010-12, he co-authored the Hybrid Reality blog on BigThink. From 2008-9, Parag hosted “InnerView” on MTV. He was a consultant to the National Geographic series Origins. 

Khanna spoke at TED in 2016 and TED Global in 2009, was a guest host of TEDGlobal 2012 and was the 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 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, the 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. He currently serves on the advisory boards of Globality, GeoQuant, Graticule Asset Management Asia (GAMA), Datarama, Henley & Partners, and Engiscent, and previously on the Innovation Advisory Board of DBS Bank. Dr. Khanna holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics and a Bachelors's and Masters's degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. 

In 2017, he was awarded a Richard von Weizsaecker fellowship at the Robert Bosch Academy. He has been a Senior Fellow of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, a Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a Distinguished Visitor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, a 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. 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. Some of his lengthy journeys include driving from the Baltic Sea through the Balkans and across Turkey and the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea, across the rugged terrain of Tibet and Xinjiang provinces in western China, and ten thousand kilometers from London to Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolia Charity Rally. 

He has climbed numerous 20,000-foot-plus peaks and trekked in the Alps, Himalayas, and Tien Shan mountain ranges. Parag is also a competitive tennis player. Parag 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 the 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, and 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. He speaks German, Hindi, French, Spanish, and basic Arabic.