Bill Emmott is a writer and consultant best known for his 13 years as editor in chief of The Economist in 1993-2006, a publication he first joined in 1980. In 2017-18 he was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and is an honorary fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now chair of the board of Trinity College’s Long Room Hub for Arts & Humanities, chair of the Japan Society of the UK, and chair of the trustees of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Bill is the author of 13 books variously on Japan, Asia, the 20th Century and Italy, the latest of which, “The Fate of the West – the battle to save the world’s most successful political idea”, was published in 2017. He was also presenter and co-author of a documentary about Italy, “Girlfriend in a Coma” (2013) and executive producer of “The Great European Disaster Movie” (2015), both shown on the BBC, following which he co-founded The Wake Up Foundation to use films for educational purposes. His next book, due to be published in May 2019, will be about how women will shape the future of Japan. A member of Tokyo University’s Global Advisory Board, he is also an adviser to Swiss Re, Lansdowne Partners and Critical Resource, a board director of EU Observer, and a regular contributor to La Stampa, Nikkei Business, Mainichi Shimbun and Project Syndicate.

Kishore Mahbubani is Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, where he also served as the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from 2004 to 2017. Before that, he served in the Singapore Foreign Service for 33 years, notably as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN and twice as President of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. He has had postings in Cambodia, Malaysia, Washington DC and New York. He was Permanent Secretary at the Singapore Foreign Ministry from 1993 to 1998.

Prof Mahbubani has spoken and published globally. He has authored seven books. His latest book, Has the West Lost it?, was published in April 2018.

He was selected as one of Prospect magazine’s top 50 world thinkers in 2014 and as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers in 2010 and 2011. In March 2009, he was listed by the Financial Times among the Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism, and in 2011 was described by Foreign Policy as “the muse of the Asian century”.

To watch Kishore Mahbubani's TED talk, please visit: https://www.ted.com/talks/kishore_mah...

Bill Emmott and Kishore Mahbubani spoke at Ideas Abu Dhabi 2019, as part of Moonshot 1: “From New World Order to None: Evolution and crisis in global relations.”

In March 2019, Ideas Abu Dhabi welcomed some of the brightest and most interesting minds from the UAE and around the world to discuss four of the most important moonshot challenges facing our planet. The event was inspired by the world-famous Aspen Ideas Festival that has been taking place in Colorado since 2005, as a place for scientists, artists, politicians, business leaders, historians and educators to discuss some of the most fascinating ideas of our time. Ideas Abu Dhabi 2019 topics included: “From New World Order to None: Evolution and crisis in global relations”, “The Brain: Unfolding the mystery”, “Cyber: The new battleground?” and “Faster, Further, For All? The future of transport”.