As but one example, the conference was kicked off yesterday by Shlomo Benartzi at UCLA, who reminded audience members how academic research led to a revolution in retirement policy in the U.S., improving the retirement security of millions of Americans by increasing participation and contribution rates to 401(k) plans by leveraging the insights of psychology and behavioral economics.

FORBES: Professor Tenure as Insurance: What the Wall Street Journal Debate Missed

Thoughtful citizens and government are both paving the way by changing policy and making things like the crowdfunding revolution possible.

FORBES: Can Crowdfunding Create Jobs and Will The Government Help?

Unchanged since the revolution, U.S. aid policy toward Egypt still makes the military alliance its priority.

CNN: U.S gets it wrong on Egypt again

"I think what he did was a revolution in terms of Russia's foreign policy, " says Dmitri Trenin of the Moscow Carnegie Center.

CNN: 9/11 a 'turning point' for Putin

Part of the reason for this is the rise of Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian revolution, which has had a mix of domestic, and foreign policy repercussions.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Singer is a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution whose book, "Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, " projected a vision of the future of war that developers were seeking.

CNN: The future world of 'Call of Duty: Black Ops II'

Green transformation will need an information revolution, relying greatly on the role of the media to enable well-informed policy choices.

UNESCO: Social and Human Sciences