Parag Khanna

Biographical Information
"Parag Khanna is a leading geo-strategist, world traveler and author. Presently a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, he is author of the international best-sellers How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011) and The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and one of fifteen individuals featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.”

"Parag served in the foreign policy advisory group to the Barack Obama for President campaign. During 2007 he was a senior geopolitical advisor to 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.

"Dr. Khanna is widely published and quoted in media around the world. He is the first video-blogger of ForeignPolicy.com. His 2008 cover story for the New York Times Magazine titled “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony,” is one of the most globally debated essays since the end of the Cold War. His articles and reviews have also appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Washington Post, Financial Times, Forbes, TIME, Newsweek, Harper’s, BusinessWeek, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Policy Review, The National Interest, Foreign Policy, McKinsey Quarterly, Los Angeles Times, Prospect, Esquire, Slate.com, The New Republic, Die Zeit, Survival, Current History, GOOD, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, New Statesman, Strategy+Business, Washington Times, The National, Daily Star, Indian Express, India Today, OpenDemocracy.net, TheGlobalist.com, and Correspondence. He has been featured on CNN, BBC, PBS, Al Jazeera, Russia Today, Press TV, National Public Radio (NPR), and other media all over the world.

"Parag is a frequent speaker at international conferences and regularly gives executive briefings to major corporations on global trends, systemic risks and emerging market strategies. He is a partner in the advisory firm Hybrid Realities and, with his wife Ayesha Khanna, directs the Hybrid Reality Institute. Together they author a featured blog on BigThink. Parag has been a host of InnerView on MTV, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Young Lions of New York Public Library. He serves on the executive boards of Independent Diplomat and the Micro Equity Development Fund, the board of trustees of the New Cities Foundation, and on the advisory board of Ergo.

"Dr. Khanna holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is a Distinguished Visitor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and has been a Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin (2008), Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly (2007-8), Visiting Fellow at the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore (2006), Non-Resident Associate of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University (2004-5), and a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi (2004). 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 in more than 100 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 eight thousand miles 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 an active and advanced tennis player.

"In 2009, Parag was honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Explorers Club. In 2002 he was awarded the OECD Future Leaders Prize. He speaks German, Hindi, French, Spanish, and basic Arabic."