Parag Khanna

Parag Khanna is the leading next generation voice on the future of global affairs. Named one of Esquire magazine's "75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century," Khanna was a foreign policy advisor to President Barack Obama during his historic presidential campaign. He is currently a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, the country's most innovative think-tank, where he directs the Roundtable on the Future of the World Economy.

Khanna is the author of the international bestseller The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the 21st Century (2009), which has been translated into 15 languages and led to The New York Times Book Review hailing Khanna as a "geopolitical whiz kid." Fareed Zakaria, TIME editor and CNN host, describes The Second World as "a fascinating, colorful, and always intelligent tour through a new world." Khanna heralded China's arrival as a superpower, foresaw the political power of Asian and Arab state-capitalism and sovereign wealth funds, depicted the growth of today's thriving cross-emerging market trade patterns, predicted that Egypt and the Arab world were "ripe for revolution," and warned of the risks poor infrastructure pose to American competitiveness.

In his most recent book, How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), Khanna provides a bold yet viable roadmap to establishing a stable economic and geopolitical order, one that incorporates governments, corporations, and non-government organizations (NGOs) to create a resilient global system. This "dizzyingly informed world tour" (Fortune) "makes the pulse race" (Economist). Nassim Taleb called the book "visionary," and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt declared, "We need to pay attention to Parag's ideas."

Khanna has been hailed as a "21st century Alvin Toffler-style global futurist" for his remarkably prescient predictions of geopolitical changes and crises, and game-changing economic and technological breakthroughs that transform the world's balance of power. As principal of the Hybrid Reality Institute, he develops leading-edge analyses of technology trends and their impact on socio-economic life around the globe.

A visible voice in the political and social arenas, Khanna has been featured on CNN, BBC, PBS, Al Jazeera, CBS, and NPR. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, TIME, Forbes, Newsweek, Harper's, BusinessWeek, Foreign Policy, and many other print and online publications.

A noted adventurer, Khanna has traveled to more than 100 countries and speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Hindi, and basic Arabic, earning him recognition as one of the world's most informed sociopolitical experts. He was honored in 2009 as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was one of 15 individuals named to WIRED magazine's "Smart List," and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Khanna also attained a Master's from Georgetown's Security Studies Program and a PhD at the London School of Economics. Dr. Khanna is a distinguished visitor at the University of Toronto's School of Global Affairs and has lectured widely at prominent universities around the world. He serves on the board of directors of Independent Diplomat and the New Cities Foundation, and the advisory board of Ergo.