Jared Cohen, Founder of Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM) and member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (GNAZ)

September 14, 2010, 6:00pm

Summary:

Defying foreign government orders and interviewing terrorists face to face, Jared Cohen toured hostile lands to learn about Middle Eastern youth—He uncovered a subculture that defies every stereotype. In 2004, Jared Cohen embarked on the first of a series of incredible journeys to the Middle East in an effort to understand the spread of radical violence among Muslim youth. The result is Children of Jihad, a portrait of paradox that probes much deeper than any journalist or pundit ever could.

Detail:

On Tuesday, September 14 Jared Cohen will visit Gen Next Members and Guests to give an incredible insight to Middle Eastern youth culture and the influence of technology.  Today, Jared Cohen has become an expert in the use of technology to advance American interests throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia.  As a founder of Alliance for Youth Movements ( AYM) and a Member of Gen Next, Cohen has proved to be a leader and expert encouraging technology as a resource for youth in oppressed countries.  The recent Iranian Protests were an excellent example of the power of technology displayed through Twitter and recognized as one of the "Top Ten Internet Moments of the Decade".  For more information on Jared Cohen, please see below.

Open to Members and their guests only-invitation is not transferable. Must RSVP to Sarah to attend.

When: September 14 at 6: 00 p.m.
Where: The Wrigley Mansion - 2501 E. Telawa Trail, Phoenix, AZ 85016
RSVP: Sarah  
Dress: Business Casual

About Jared Cohen:

Jared Cohen (born November 24, 1981 in Weston, Connecticut) is a non-fiction author and member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, where he has served since September 2006. Initially brought in by Condoleezza Rice as the youngest member in history, he is politically transcendent and has continued to play an important role under Hillary Clinton.

In this capacity, he focuses on counter-terrorism, counter-radicalization, Middle East/South Asia, Youth, and Technology. Prior to his work at the State Department, Cohen received his BA from Stanford University and his M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Cohen has become a specialist in the use of technology to advance American interests throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. In December 2008, Cohen assembled the first ever Alliance of Youth Movements, which was a summit of 21st century movements that relied almost entirely on technology to affect change. In April 2009, he took senior executives from Silicon Valley to Iraq on the first ever US government technology delegation. Eight months later, Cohen brought Google CEO Eric Schmidt to Iraq in what was the first trip to Iraq by an American CEO from a leading technology company. During June 2009 he intervened to keep the Twitter network online, delaying scheduled engineering work, so that supporters of the Iranian opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, favored by the U.S., could continue using the network to plan anti-government activities.