<p>Afshin Molavi helps audiences navigate a rapidly shifting global landscape—translating economic, geopolitical, and social changes into insights that matter for their businesses, industries, and communities. </p><p>A leading authority on global trends, Afshin Molavi blends rigorous analysis with engaging storytelling to make sense of complexity, find the unexpected patterns, and uncover opportunity. With decades of reporting and research across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, Molavi connects the dots between geopolitics, supply chains, demographics, technology, energy, and finance. He shows how the forces reshaping boardrooms in London, Shanghai or Dubai also reverberate in Chicago, Dallas, and Detroit. Always forward-looking, he challenges audiences not just to weather today’s turbulence but to position themselves for tomorrow’s opportunities.</p><p>A Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins SAIS, Molavi is the founder of the <em>Emerging World</em> newsletter and co-founder of the emerge85 Lab. His writing has appeared in <em>The New York Times, The Economist,</em> <em>Businessweek,</em> and <em>Institutional Investor, </em>and he has held reporting roles with Reuters,<em> The Washington Post,</em> and t<em>he Financial Times</em>. He has also served as a senior global advisor at Oxford Analytica and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos.</p><p>Molavi views globalization not as a relic of the past but as an evolving force that shapes our daily lives. As he often puts it, “Globalization is not somewhere distant—it’s in your cup, your car, your culture.” From your morning coffee to the technology in your pocket, he reveals how global connections create both challenges and opportunities for American companies and workers.</p><p>Known for his approachable style, wit, and sharp insight, Molavi often draws on history, literature, film - and even pop culture and sports to make global issues vivid and accessible. From Wall Street to Main Street, from the boardrooms of Europe to the stadiums and cities of Asia and the Middle East, he has delivered impactful keynotes for corporations, associations, and investors worldwide, leaving audiences with a clearer view of where the world is headed and how to prepare for what’s next.</p>
Geopolitics and Global Economics Expert; Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University SAIS
<ul><li><strong>The New Geopolitical Risk (and Opportunity) Map in the Trump 2.0 Era</strong></li><li>In an engaging, global tour of the key geopolitical and geo-economic shifts, Afshin Molavi explores the rapidly changing world facing the Trump presidency and how policy in the Trump 2.0 era may interact with that world and shape our future. With insight drawn from years of experience engaging with many of the key foreign policy players in the incoming Administration and decades of international experience from Shanghai to Mumbai to Dubai, Molavi presents a nuanced look at how the world has changed considerably since President Trump's first term. He explores how these changes might impact the accelerating showdown between Washington and Beijing in the Trump 2.0 era, as well as some of the key flashpoints from Ukraine to Venezuela to the Middle East. He also dissects shifts in global supply chains, energy markets, and trade corridors and points to the opportunities amid the shifting order. Audiences walk away with a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for American businesses.</li><li><strong>The New World Disorder: Navigating the New Power Shifts and Strategic Realignments</strong></li><li>In this tour d'horizon of the major global trends, world economic outlook, and geopolitical hotspots, Afshin Molavi explores in a tailored way how each of these will affect your business and our collective future. Weaving in anecdotes from nearly three decades of on-the-ground international experience, a broad historical understanding of key global trends, and a unique ability to geo-locate today's headlines into a broader global outlook, Molavi's insights help navigate the choppy waters and storms that surround us, pointing at the opportunities beyond the clouds and the fog.</li><li><strong>The Five Disruption-Proof Trends Shaping Our World and Their Impact on Politics, Business, Society, and Technology</strong></li><li>From rapid urbanization and growing middle classes to unprecedented connectivity and technology acceleration, Afshin Molavi navigates audiences through five key demographic and universal growth trends that are reshaping our world. He describes these shifts as “disruption-proof” in that they transcend our day-to-day political, economic and trade developments. Understanding their importance will help any organization navigate the competitive global landscape for the next twenty-five years. </li><li><strong>Vladimir Putin’s Bomb, the Global Shrapnel, and Our Collective Future</strong></li><li>When Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine in February 2022, he unleashed a geopolitical and geo-economic bomb. The shrapnel from that bomb will be felt in every corner of the world from Chile to China. Diving into supply chain disruptions, commodities forecasts, and the re-ordering of geopolitical alliances, Afshin Molavi explores the fall-out from Russia’s invasion, arguing that the action “will shape our world profoundly, fueling greater instability worldwide, exacerbating inequalities, re-ordering alliances, and posing challenges to established leaders everywhere.”</li><li><strong>Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai or Goodbye: The New, New Emerging Markets Transformation and What It Means for Our World</strong></li><li>Afshin Molavi takes a tour around the new geo-economic horizon reshaping our world, and what it means for markets, cultures, societies, and politics. As a former Dubai-based journalist and Asia risk strategist, Molavi brings personal anecdotes, deep economic insights, and broad trends analysis into an illuminating, entertaining tour of our evolving world. Molavi goes beyond the BRICs and beyond the usual markets analysis to dive deep into newly forming alliances, key consumer trends, and major macro shifts shaping what he calls the “85 world” - where 85% of the world’s population lives, from Asia to Africa to Latin America to the Middle East.</li></ul>