Jared Cohen, director of "Google Ideas," will present a public talk titled, "The New Digital Age: The Future of Citizens, States, and Business" at the Woodrow Wilson School on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. in Dodds Auditorium.  Cohen's talk is part of the School's "Media and Public Policy" thematic lecture series.

Created in 2010 with Cohen at its helm, Google Ideas is a cross-sector, inter-disciplinary "think/do tank" dedicated to understanding global challenges and applying technological solutions to these worldwide problems. Google Ideas further positions Google to influence global cultural, political and social issues. 

Cohen is currently co-authoring a book with Google executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, focusing on technology and international relations.  The book grew out of an article, “The Digital Disruption,” which was published in Foreign Affairs magazine in November 2010 that predicted technology would rewrite the relationship between nation states and their citizens in the 21st century.  The prescient second sentence of the article reads, “Governments will be caught off-guard when large numbers of citizens, armed with virtually nothing but cell phones, take part in mini-rebellions that challenge their authority.”

It was also Cohen who, in the midst of the June 2009 post-election protests in Iran, sought to support the uprising by reaching out to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, urging the company to reschedule its planned maintenance of its website so that Iranians could keep tweeting.  He believed that since many of the other forms of communication had been blocked or shut down, Twitter was one of the only means for people inside Iran to get information to the outside world.

Cohen served as a member of the policy planning committee at the U.S. Department of State from 2006-2010, initially as the youngest member in history.  During his time at the State Department, he focused on counter-terrorism, counter-radicalization, the Middle East, South Asia, youth, and technology.  He has also been recognized as one of the principal architects of what became known as “21st century statecraft.”

In 2011, Vanity Fair named Cohen as a member of the “Next Establishment,” The Washington Post and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government names him one of six “Top American Leaders,” and Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”

The event will be archived online for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s Webmedia site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.

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