There is no question that Asia will become ever more important in the world. Whether you view it as a blessing or a disaster, the one thing that the so-called "Asian century" shouldn't be is a surprise.

Besides any job creation impact and economic efficiencies created by an U.S./ EU trade pact, essentially a win win, the pact will enable the U.S. and Europe's economy to be more integrated in order to balance China's growing power in world trade.

Humans are not born resilient -- we learn, adapt, and improve upon our resilience. The same is true for organizations, systems, and societies. But what makes some people or organizations more resilient than others?

A world adrift desperately needs global thinkers, most of all from Asia. Kishore Mahbubani fits the bill with his signal work, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West and the Logic of One World, at this critical time. Let's pray his optimism is justified.

The new actors of globalization aren't concepts or acronyms; they aren't even regions or countries. They are individual women and men, and it is time we became acquainted with them.

Though tricky to define and even more challenging to measure, there's no denying that power is a fundamental driver of country behavior in the international political system. And measuring material power in today's geo-political space will only continue to shift.