Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age

Anonymous. WikiLeaks. The Syrian Electronic Army. Edward Snowden. Bitcoin. The Arab Spring.

Digital communication technologies have thrust the calculus of global political power into a period of unprecedented complexity. In every aspect of international affairs, digitally enabled actors are changing the way the world works and disrupting the institutions that once held a monopoly on power. Join scholar Taylor Owen for a conversation on how government departments, international organizations and corporations are being challenged by a new breed of international actor. Moderating this program will be Mike Ananny, Assistant Professor of Communication and Journalism at USC Annenberg.

In his new book, Distruptive Power, Owen explores the frontier of international affairs, profiles disruptive innovators, demonstrate how they are challenging existing power structures for good and ill, and provide a road map for navigating a networked world. A world enabled by information technology, and destabilized by disruptive innovators.

About Taylor Owen

Taylor Owen is Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia and a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Journalism School. He was previously the Research Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University where he designed and led a program studying the impact of digital technology on the practice of journalism. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of opencanada.org, an award-winning international affairs website, and the Director of the International Relations and Digital Technology Project. He has previously held positions at Yale University, the London School of Economics and the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. His PhD is from the University of Oxford, where he was a Trudeau Scholar.

See below for a highlight reel from the event.

This event is free and open to the public, however, you must register in advance. Refreshments will be served.

On-campus parking can be purchased for $10 a day and please follow the link on the online campus map.