Kishore Mahbubani (born 24 October 1948) is a Singaporean academic and former diplomat. He is currently a senior adviser and professor who has been on a nine-month sabbatical at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.[1]
From 1971 to 2004 he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In that role, he served as President of the United Nations Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002.[2]
On 6 November 2017, Mahbubani announced that he would retire from the position as Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School at the end of 2017.[3]
Early life and education
Born in Singapore to a Singaporean Indian family of Sindhi descent, Mahbubani's parents were Hindus who settled in Singapore after being displaced from their native Hyderabad, Sindh, during the partition of India.[4][5] Mahbubani attended Tanjong Katong Technical School and completed his pre-university studies at St. Andrew's School (now St. Andrew's Junior College). He was awarded the President's Scholarship in 1967 and graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Philosophy from the University of Singapore (now the National University of Singapore) in 1971. He received a master's degree in Philosophy in 1976 and an honorary doctorate in 1995 from Dalhousie University in Canada.[6]