Jared Cohen

“The importance of human judgment does not evaporate in the future, and as connected individuals, we will have to exercise sound judgment about what we choose to share or not share about ourselves.”

“We live in a world where all wars will begin as cyber wars... It's the combination of hacking and massive, well-coordinated disinformation campaigns.”

“It's not a panacea: there are problems in the world that technology can't fix. You can't fix water shortages. You can't storm a Ministry of the Interior with a cell phone. You can't magically create leaders and institutions overnight. You can't eat it. You can't shield a bullet.”

“I think, when I wrote 'Children of Jihad,' I wrote it with a very optimistic view of what technology can do. Today I maintain that optimistic view, but I'm also aware of the challenges we have. So I would say I'm not a techno-utopian, but I'm a techno-pragmatist.”

“The intensity of cyber conflict around the world is increasing, and the tools are becoming cheaper and more readily available.”

“Every single young person is reachable. Ask them what dating is like in their country. Ask them if they have a girlfriend. Ask them what their type is. There's nobody who's too conservative to talk about that.”

“When people think of digital diplomacy, they think of government tweeting. It is not what it is. That is public diplomacy.”

“Privacy and security are the ultimate shared responsibility, and everyone - including governments, companies, and citizens - have an important role to play.”

“My job is to put as many ideas out there as possible every day. Some of them will get traction, some won't - some of them shouldn't.”

“The big unknown is, at what point is a cyberattack so significant that it warrants a physical-world response.”

“When we're splitting our time between a physical and digital world, you have to stay safe online the same way you stay safe offline.”

“When you work at Google and tell these engineers that their skill set is relevant to somebody in Iran who doesn't have access to information in their country or the rest of the world, it really inspires them to want to do something about it. There is a genuine altruism that exists at this company, and that's why I'm here and not anywhere else.”

“I'll say that technology will make revolutions start happening faster, but it'll make them harder to finish. Technology can't create leaders and cause institutions to appear.”

“It is difficult to predict technology more than 10 years out with any certitude, but what I observe is that change and innovation happens earlier and faster than we expect. We are constantly surprised at what technology can do.”

“Essentially, it's not that technology or cyberspace is some parallel universe that operates tangentially from the world we know; it is simply a new front in the international system.”