Describing the UAE as a rare success story among post-colonial countries, American author and political analyst Parag Khanna said geographical location, globalisation and balance between local power structures and expatriate workforce were the principal factors behind the country's leap forward.

Speaking at the Dubai Press Club on "Emirates at the Global Geopolitical Marketplace," Khanna, Fellow and Director of Global Governance Initiative at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan, public policy institute in Washington DC, said the way first-world technology and third-world labour came together in the UAE was remarkable. The talk was jointly organised by Dubai Press Club and Dubai School of Government.

Mentioning that the balance of power in the present world is undergoing important changes, Khanna said many new players had made their influential presence felt at the international scene, resulting in the emergence of multiple centres of power across the world. "Countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, China and Turkey are all actively involved in the shaping of the present world, carefully balancing their respective national interests with the larger good. Their relationship with the major powers are not one of servitude, but based on mutual respect, economic advantages and political stability," he said.

Khanna, who served as a geopolitical advisor to the United States Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007, said his new book The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order was written after extensively travelling in more than 50 countries, which, according to him, constituted the second world in the changed global order. "These second-tier countries are shaping the world as much as the three superpowers – the US, European Union and China," he said.

Speaking on the fall out of another potential recession in the US, Khanna said he was confident the country would tide it over. "But the question is how long?" he wondered.

Welcoming Khanna to Dubai and the Press Club, Maryam Bin Fahad, Executive Director, Dubai Press Club, drew attention to the importance of the book, saying that it appreciatively analysed the role of the UAE in both the regional and global scenarios.

Khanna autographed copies of his book for the media persons and other interested public.