Moisés Naím Featured at Italian Embassy’s Digital Diplomacy series

Moisés Naím’s latest book, “The End of Power,” was met with praise from notable leaders in the digital world, including Mark Zuckerberg and Arianna Huffington.  And though his book was published over a year ago, the contents still offer much food for discussion.

The Italian Ambassador, Claudio Bisogniero, suggests that “The End of Power” is “a book that is having a big impact on all of us,” so the Italian Embassy recently invited Naím to be a part of its Digital Diplomacy series, where he was interviewed by ABC News journalist Ali Weinberg.

During the event, Naím spoke about how digital technologies crept into our lives and changed the way we look at certain aspects of life, including television and Forbes lists. He also mentioned how digital technologies eventually led to an erosion in political power because young people today are more interested in working as business executives than in becoming members of Congress.

“I would be foolish to deny the importance of digital and social media,” he said.

However, Naím also argued that this disinterest in politics is a threat to democracy because political ideas are necessary in order to have a democracy. Even though he doesn’t want the United States to act like Big Brother in “1984,” he said that he finds the acts of hacking from China and Russia more frightening than the NSA spying on people.

But in the midst of digital technologies that have already changed the world, he is certain that more changes will follow what has been already done… including in the way that people choose their leaders.

“Humanity is on the verge of a massive wave of innovation.”