Parag Khanna doesn’t shy away from big statements. Case in point: one of his previous books, published eight years ago, is titled How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance. Now the global strategy adviser is back with a new book, The Future Is Asian: Commerce, Conflict, and Culture in the 21st Century. In it, Khanna argues that the world is being “irreversibly Asianised”, with economic growth and rapid development pushing the mega-region to a prominence that not only sidesteps, but challenges American and European dominance. The book is described on Khanna’s website as “the definitive guide” to this new reality.

But while the future might be Asian, many of Khanna’s roots are in the West. Born in India, he was raised in the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Germany. He has degrees from Georgetown and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics. Now forty-one, he’s the managing partner of FutureMap, a strategic advisory firm he founded that advises national, provincial and city governments.

His work has also been well received in the West, earning him spots on Wired magazine’s Smart List and Esquire’s list of the “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century”. (That said, the reception hasn’t been uniformly complimentary; in 2011, he made the New Republic’s list of “Over-Rated Thinkers”.)

• Tags: Issue 14, Kirsten Han, Parag Khanna, Singapore