Foreign Policy magazine recognizes the world's pre-eminent thought leaders and public intellectuals in an annual issue, "100 Leading Global Thinkers". The list has become one of Foreign Policys most-read features. Honorees include a range of leaders, advocates, innovators, artists, government officials, and visionaries from around the world. The editors of Foreign Policy select the 100 global thinkers based on their standout contributions over the previous year and their ability to translate ideas into action that change and shape the world. Since 2011, Foreign Policy has honored these leaders at an annual celebration, held at the time of the release of the print issue, in Washington, D.C.
Lists
2005 list
This was known in that year as the "2005 Prospect/FP Top 100Public Intellectuals Poll". It was conducted with Prospect magazine. More than 20,000 people voted in the poll.
2008 list
The 2008 list was the second list of top public intellectual conducted with Prospect magazine. The complete list of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" was published in May 2008. The final rankings were released in June 2008 and were based on more than 500,000 public votes over nearly four weeks.
2009 list
The 2009 list of "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers" was released in November 2009.
2010 list
The 2010 list of "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers" was released in November 2010.
2011 list
The 2011 list of "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers" was released in November 2011.
2012 list
The 2012 list of "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers" was released in November 2012.
2013 list
The honorees for the 2013 Leading Global Thinkers issue were announced in late 2013.
2014 list
The honorees for the 2014 Leading Global Thinkers issue were named in November 2014. The 2014 list was in no particular order and divided the honorees into ten categories; agitators, decision-makers, challengers, naturals, innovators, advocates, chroniclers, healers, artists, and moguls.
2015 list
The honorees on the 2015 list were in no particular order. The 2015 list was divided into nine categories; decision-makers, challengers, innovators, advocates, artists, healers, stewards, chroniclers, and moguls. The categories of "naturals" and "agitators" from 2014 were replaced with the "stewards" category
2016 list
The honorees on the 2016 list were in no particular order. The 2016 list was divided into the same nine categories as the 2015 list.
2017 list
The honorees on the 2017 list were in no particular order.
