Parag Khanna

Redefining the world order isn't usually on the to-do list of ordinary citizens but it's all in a day's - or book's - work for author, global strategist, geopolitical commentator and all-round deep thinker Parag Khanna, whose views on the matter are sought by political scientists, policy-makers and fellow intellectuals.

Mr Khanna, 41, is an archetypal postmodern authority on geopolitical shifts and what he calls the new, new world order. He made an impact in 2008 with his bestselling first book The Second World, about the battle among three established superpowers (the United States, the European Union and China) for influence in natural resource-rich second-tier countries around the globe.

Mr Khanna showed up early on the geopolitical radar and had never dropped off it. He is founder and managing partner at strategic advisory FutureMap and his just-published sixth book The Future is Asian advances a theory about Asia (and not only China) at the leading edge of economic and technological progress in the 21st century.