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.
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Book Review
Blurbs for Living the Asian Century by Kishore Mahbubani
Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir is a well-written and thoroughly engaging book by Kishore Mahbubani which captures the highs and the lows of his amazing and curious life. He describes his personal crises and career with surprising openness and frankness which will surprise many readers who are exposed only to his political and strategic thinking in his many books and articles. This is a story of fierce survival and grit on borrowed optimism. Mahbubani weaves analyses of realpolitik and geopolitical dynamics in his account of the international power play and negotiations he witnessed and experienced in bilateral diplomacy in national capitals and in multilateralism at the United Nations and the UN Security Council. Public officials and diplomats can draw many sharp insights from this memoir to deepen their understanding of how to navigate when faced with similar challenges in foreign policy.
Chan Heng Chee, Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States (1996-2012) and currently Ambassador at Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
To have travelled from ‘poverty to plenty’, and lived in an eventful time in history, would endow any life with rich complexity. Kishore Mahbubani’s journey through our Asian Century, from childhood deprivation to adult eminence, reflects his brave, intrepid and fearless spirit. He offers a kaleidoscopic view of the cut and thrust of world politics as he experienced them as a diplomat in the US, alongside a local and intimate bird’s eye view of Singapore’s political struggles and those of its founding fathers, especially the inimitable Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Zooming out of global crises and into poignant personal moments and difficulties, this is an absorbing memoir of unflinching honesty. It is a pleasure and an education to read it.
Meira Chand, recipient of Singapore’s Cultural Medallion and author of the iconic Singapore novel, A Different Sky
Kishore’s memoir tells the remarkable story of his rise from poverty to a distinguished career in diplomacy and academia. This deeply personal account also captures the incredible transformation of Singapore and Southeast Asia. This is an inspiring story, beautifully written, that I just could not put down. A must read.
Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
The arc of Kishore Mahbubani’s remarkable life and career tracks the birth and rise of Singapore as an independent nation. Through insightful and amusing stories, always told with his trademark candor, this distinguished diplomat and public intellectual also provokes us to think hard about “the Asian century.”
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University
Having known Kishore for 59 years, I never expected to learn new things about him in his memoirs. But he surprised me by revealing so many details about his life in this no holds barred account that I finished the book within a day. His seductive writing skills and his excellent story-telling ability make this one of the best memoirs I’ve read of a Singapore public servant.
Eddie Teo, Chairman, Council of Presidential Advisers, Singapore
I first met Kishore Mahbubani as a fiercely bearded and rather combative, though undeniably brilliant, mid-level official of the Singapore foreign ministry in 1981. Thereafter I have had the pleasure of watching him rise to being an outstanding Permanent Representative of Singapore at the United Nations, the founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and a public intellectual of coruscating intelligence and insight, who has carved a niche for himself in the world of geopolitical ideas. His memoirs are a beguiling glimpse into his fascinating journey from very humble beginnings to the highest echelons of international diplomacy. Punctuated with eclectic anecdotes across continents, anchored in the warmth and affability of Kishore’s personality, this is a must-read for all those enthused by a diplomatic career, and those driven to understand the lessons it can teach for life.
Shashi Tharoor, author, parliamentarian, former UN Under-Secretary-General, and former government minister in India
The rise of Asia is the great economic and political story of our age. Nobody’s life story could illuminate better than Kishore Mahbubani’s — a man of Indian heritage, a product of multi-racial Singapore, and someone with deep knowledge of Western ideas and achievements — how and why this transformation happened. This book then is far more than the fascinating autobiography of a man who is arguably Asia’s most influential thinker on today’s transforming global order. The experiences and achievements of his life as student, diplomat, and commentator also provide important lessons for Westerners. Not least, it will help them understand how an informed and favourably disposed outsider judges both their historic achievements and recent follies.
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times
When I once mused to a senior European journalist that Kishore must be the most well-known Singaporean internationally, she agreed emphatically. Apart from Lee Kuan Yew, no other Singaporean has achieved a wider reach through his writings and speeches. In his short but fascinating memoirs, Kishore gives the reader an insight into what drove him. Rooted in different cultures, Kishore rejoices in a new Asia re-emerging on the global stage. His non-Chinese view of China opposes a widespread western perception that China’s actions somehow threaten peace and stability in the world. Kishore’s analysis of the role of raw power in global politics is sobering. He watched and experienced it at close range. Kishore freely admits that he had detractors, both in Singapore and outside, and tries to understand their criticisms of him. One can sense the pain he must have felt writing those paragraphs. As the Founding Dean, Kishore was hugely responsible for the exceptional success of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Yet, even here, he faced many criticisms. Happily, he emerged stronger and more energized after each of life’s challenges. He had more than his fair share. Kishore’s memoirs are not only about foreign affairs, it is also about an individual life in the Singapore Story which would not be put down by misfortune or hardship. His story will inspire a younger generation of Singaporeans.
George Yeo, former Singapore Foreign Minister