Embedded as a central government advisor in Vietnam and Laos in the early 1990s, Brahm vociferously opposed the “shock therapy” policy prescriptions of the Washington Consensus. During these years, Brahm drafted the overarching financial reforms and accompanying policy legislation that led to economic take-off and continues to serve as the development framework for these countries to this day. Two decades later, Vietnam and Laos are examples of the success of Brahm’s policy advice, in contrast to the graveyard status of the “shock therapy” method (See: Vietnam: Banking and Finance, Banking and Finance in Indochina)

Brahm went on to advise Cambodia, Mongolia and ultimately China’s economic tsar, former Premier Zhu Rongji, during critical years that Zhu supervised China’s transition from planned to market economy creating the economic miracle China has today. A member of the inner circle of Zhu’s economic advisors and a trusted personal friend to several of China’s leaders, his advice was regularly sought behind China’s state-owned enterprise, banking and monetary reforms that paved the way for China’s entry into the WTO in 2001. During these years he coined the “China Century” theory which juxtaposed the doomsday “China Collapse” view held by certain scholars in the West. Brahm also documented the reforms that he was personally witnessed in his biography of former Premier Zhu Rongji (See: Zhu Rongji - The Transformation of Modern China, China's Century: The Awakening of the Next Economic Powerhouse, China After W.T.O, China As No. 1 The New Superpower Takes Centre Stage, Re-engineering China, The China Forex Guide, Zhongnanhai, China Inc.: A Concise Overview of China's Power Structure and Profiles of China's Leaders Today, Banking and Finance in China).

Following China’s entry into WTO in 2001, Brahm considered his work on economic and monetary reform policy in Beijing to be finished as the reform process would now be magnetized by global integration through WTO as opposed to driven by policy decision-making of individual leaders. He shifted focus from coastal China to the western regions, moving to the Himalayan plateau, seeking to find alternative economic experiences relevant to rural poverty alleviation and environmental protection as opposed to urban industrialization. At this point his previous work as alternative developmental advocate evolved into that of a global activist.

From 2002, Brahm refused any further engagements with multinational corporations as investment advisor and strategist, moving from Beijing to Lhasa where he began an extensive program of heritage building restoration, micro-equity empowerment for handicapped and women, medical outreach programs including establishing clinics in monasteries and campaigns to rid blindness among nomadic and poor populations, and the first free-education Montessori school in Tibet. These programs when integrated became the Consensus Community of the Himalayas, and are highlighted in an 18-article series in the magazine ReviewAsia. By end 2009, there will be four Consensus Communities across the region.

His extensive writing and film documentation of experiences on the Tibetan plateau during the years 2002-2006 emerged in a book trilogy of Himalayan travelogues: Searching for Shangri-la, Conversations with Sacred Mountains, Shambhala, followed by a fourth book New Age Sutra and two art-theatre films Searching for Shangri-la and Shambhala Sutra. These works expressed his multifaceted concerns over environmental protection, ethnic identity, poverty alleviation and income gap re-distribution, and promotion of world peace.

From 2006 he embarked on integrating different experiences across the Himalayan range from Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan to Bangladesh and then Sri Lanka, weaving these into a new paradigm calling for prioritizing environmental protection, ethnic diversity, and culturally sustainability in the context of the Himalayan Consensus. This crystallized in publication March 2009 of his latest book The Anti-Globalization Breakfast Club – Manifesto for a Peaceful Revolution (John Wiley & Sons).

At present, in partnership with Tianjin Satellite Television, Brahm is co-directing and co-hosting a United Nations/UNDP endorsed program called Green China (2009) - a media campaign to raise awareness of the challenges and dangers of global warming within China.