PM Lee one of the world's top leaders of last two decades, says Harvard professor

Americans would vote for PM Lee to run the US fora decade, he quips

- Bhagyashree Garekar

Professor Graham Allison has observed the world's top leaders at close quarters and made the Harvard Kennedy School the world's best known school of public policy and government.

There, he was the adviser to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong when PM Lee was a student.

PM Lee's soon-to-be successor Lawrence Wong has also studied at the school.

Prof Allison, the 84-year-old Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard University, is the author of the landmark 2017 book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap - which examines the consequences of a rising power rivalling a ruling power.

He also wrote a 2013 bestseller about Singapore's founding prime minister, titled Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights On China, The United States, And The World.

He is not shy about mixing perspicacious humour with the serious business of statecraft to illustrate a point.

Prof Allison shared his impressions of PM Lee in an interview with The Straits Times. He noted, half in jest, that in a referendum, Americans would vote for Mr Lee to run the US for a decade until it functions "more successfully".

Here are excerpts from the interview:

ON PM LEE'S LEADERSHIP