Why are the Olympics So Important to China? March 26, 2008

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/02/27/Asia_Advice_for_the_Next_American_President

Singaporean author and diplomat Kishore Mahbubani explains the importance of the 2008 Summer Olympics to the Chinese national psyche.

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Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani in conversation with Vishakha N. Desai on U.S. Policy Towards Asia: An Asian Leaders Advice for the Next American President.

The next President of the United States will face a much different world than in decades past. The spectacular rise of China and India - economically, politically, militarily, and culturally - are creating new realities across the region that have not yet been fully factored in to America's foreign policy. Many in Asia believe that America's policy leaders have not yet formulated a coherent strategy for how the US should engage with the world's most vibrant and fast growing region.

Please join us as noted foreign policy expert, Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani, shares his "advice" to the next President on US involvement in Asia. - Asia Society

Kishore Mahbubani served as Singapore's Ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1989 - and again from 1998 to 2004. In January 2001 and May 2002, he was the President of the U.N. Security Council.

After serving in the Singapore Foreign Ministry for 33 years, Mr. Mahbubani became Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore in August 2004.

Mr. Mahbubani is the author of two books, Can Asians Think? - and the just published Beyond The Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World.

Mr. Mahbubani received a Masters degree in Philosophy in 1976 from Dalhousie University, Canada and an honorary doctorate in 1995. He also served as a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from 1991 to 1992 - and received the Foreign Policy Association Medal in New York in June 2004.