Last night, at a party hosted by ICM agent Jennifer Joel, Parag Khanna celebrated the publication of The Second World, based on his globe-spanning travels to suss out the shifting power balances in the new world order. “It’s like witnessing the birth of a pundit,” quipped New York Times Magazine editor Scott Malcolmson, who worked with Khanna on last month’s much-talked about article distilling his thesis, as Random House and ICM staffers mingled with political scientists and international journalists around Joel’s living room. And it’s true: When it comes to making sense of globalization, Khanna seems like he just might be the MTV generation’s answer to Thomas Friedman.