The world is coming together for the first time in many years, and it's not just for the Olympic games — says one strategist.

"We think the global economic recovery may be in the early stages of a synchronized bounce," Wells Capital Management's Chief Investment Strategist James Paulsen told CNBC's "Futures Now" in a recent interview. "I think there's evidence of that already happening."

According to Paulsen, for the first time in the last eight years, policy officials around the world are "simultaneously pushing upward on the global economy," whereas in the past, many "other developed and emerging economic policies have often been in conflict" to the United States. He pointed to easing in Japan and the eurozone, referring to it as "full out Bernanke stimulus" and noting that it has helped to push equities higher. And while he admitted that the economic growth will be "subpar" when compared to the historical average, he does see steady improvements.

"If you look at global surprise indices, they are up in most places across the globe including the United States," said Paulsen. "The surprise index measures economic reports from around the globe that are coming out better than expected. When it goes up, it suggests that economic momentum is going up," he added.

Paulsen pointed to the Westpac Positive Surprise Global index and noted that it went from one of its lowest readings in the last five years in March to one of its highest readings in August. "An improvement in economic momentum is also strongly suggested by rising stock markets," he added.

Indeed equities around the world have been rallying — all major indexes in the U.S. are sitting at record highs, while the emerging markets ETF is up more than 15 percent this year.

"Globally stocks are going higher, and now international markets are starting to outperform the U.S., suggesting this is more of a global fundamental pick-up," Paulsen explained.

While he does expect U.S. stocks to continue to rise, he warned that stock investors "should look a-yonder" to target bigger gains.

"I don't know that the U.S. stock market will go much higher this year, maybe the S&P will hit 2,250 — but I do think that the international stock market will do a lot better from here than the United States," he said. "International stocks have underperformed the U.S. throughout most of this recovery, and because foreign stocks have underperformed so persistently, they are likely significantly under-owned by most investors."

Paulsen suggested being overweight ex-U.S. developed and emerging stock markets.