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“Climate change is a real challenge that all of humanity must come together to face,” said Kishore Mahbubani, former UN Security Council President, author, and Singaporean geopolitical consultant.
In addition to four days of interactive educational and networking programming designed to sharpen skills, share best practices, and equip meeting professionals for the challenges of the future, Convening Leaders 2025 — taking place Jan. 12-15 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas — will welcome four keynote speakers to the Main Stage, invited for their pathbreaking perspectives and ability to inspire audiences to expand their own thinking.
Main Stage speakers include Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business, bestselling author, and co-host of the Pivot podcast; Brené Brown, bestselling author and research professor at the University of Houston and visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business; attorney and former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, whose leadership positions included serving as vice chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol; and Kishore Mahbubani, former UN Security Council President, author, and Singaporean geopolitical consultant, who spoke with Convene on why and how you should prepare for the coming Asian century.
Brené Brown (from left), Scott Galloway, and Liz Cheney will be on the Main Stage at Convening Leaders 2025.
3 Big Questions
Mahbubani has spent his life and career navigating shifting geographical, political, and cultural borders. His parents were part of the mass migration from India following the 1947 partition of India into two states, and Mahbubani was born in Singapore when the island was still a colony of the British crown. Lifted out of poverty by a scholarship to attend what’s now the National University of Singapore (NUS), Mahbubani joined Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs after earning a graduate degree in philosophy, and later was the founding dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS. Currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at NUS, where he coordinates its Asian Peace Programme, Mahbubani’s greatest influence outside of Singapore arguably has come through the 10 books and numerous newspaper and journal articles he has written exploring the shifting power dynamics between the East and the West.
What do you think that the West most needs to understand about how geopolitics has changed, as it affects Asia and the West?
That the 21st century will be the Asian century. In fact, from Year 1 [A.D.] through 1820, the two largest economies in the world were those of China and India. So, the last 200 years, in a sense, have been a kind of aberration. And now we are reaching back to the historical norm — and it’s happening very, very fast.
As recently as the year 2000, the United States’ GNP was $10 trillion, and all of the combined Asian countries’ GNP was $9.5 trillion. But now, already Asia’s economy is 1.5 times bigger than that of the United States. And by 2050, the combined Asian economy will be three times the size of the United States. This is a massive shift of economic power, from West to East, and I think that’s what the world needs to prepare for.
What do you consider to be the biggest risks facing the world right now?
Geopolitical contests. Of course, we have, sadly, the continuing war in Gaza, the continuing war in Ukraine. But the biggest geopolitical contest is always the one within the world’s No. 1 power, which today is the U.S., and the world’s No. 1 emerging power, which today is China. I have no doubt that this contest will accelerate over the next 10 years or so.
I don’t think there’ll be a war, because in a war within two nuclear powers, you don’t have a winner and a loser. You have a loser and a loser. But everything short of war — you will see more and more measures being taken by both sides. And that’s what we need to prepare for. At the same time, I think most Asian countries would prefer if the United States and China could moderate their contests somewhat and focus on common challenges like, for example, climate change.
Climate change is a real challenge that all of humanity must come together to face. At the end of the day, if you are in the same boat and the boat is sinking, it doesn’t matter who has the bigger cabin on the boat — what matters is whether or not the boat is sinking. So, this is what I hope the United States and China would agree on — to come together to handle common global challenges like climate change and put the pause button on the geopolitical contest.
What role do you see for business events in helping to advance that kind of global collaboration?
I see a tremendous role for PCMA. I find that when people look at other parts of the world, they keep thinking: “These people must be very different from us.” In some ways, they are. But at the same time, Americans who come to Asia, especially when they meet their business leader counterparts, are surprised to find that they speak English fluently, that they understand the world very well, and they want to cooperate and collaborate with American institutions.
I think it’s important to emphasize that the Asian century is not opposed to the American century — it is in some ways a continuation of the American century, because all the key principles that have enabled the success of Asia come from the United States of America. It was the U.S. that taught the Asians the power of free trade and the power of free trade agreements. When Americans come to Asia and they feel the Asian century, they’ll also feel at home, because you’ll see these societies are succeeding on the basis of well-known American principles. So, an Asian century, but one that’s been built on many useful and valuable American principles. So, there’ll be no clash of civilizations. There’ll be a fusion of civilizations.
Barbara Palmer is deputy editor of Convene. Interview has been condensed for space.
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Learn more about Convening Leaders 2025 at ConveningLeaders.org.