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No. 2: London
The erstwhile imperial city on the Thames was once the British Empire's seat of power, with sway over a quarter of the world's population. Today, though London holds no sovereign claim over its former colonies, the city's legal, linguistic, and literary influence still resonates in the far corners of the globe. Besides ranking first for its numbers of international travelers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with global reach, London also ranks second in the world for attracting foreign students to its elite universities, for hosting international sporting events, for its number of think tanks, and for the number and quality of its museums. It is also strongly situated as a center of higher education, diplomacy, and finance.
