The Google Ideas Summit: Some Reflections

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) partnered with Google Ideas and the Tribeca Film Festival to convene a major summit on “Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition” (INFO) in Los Angeles, California, that explored the potential of technology to “expose, map, and disrupt” illicit networks around the world, and to empower individuals, civil society, governments, and corporations to fight back. These closing remarks were delivered at the INFO summit on Wednesday, July 18.

I have worked at the Council on Foreign Relations for four years, and this is without a doubt the most exciting initiative I have worked on during that time. On behalf of CFR, I want to thank Jared Cohen and the whole Google Ideas team for their incredible work in putting on this INFO Summit—and inviting us to collaborate on it.

It is hard to imagine any other company pulling off what you have accomplished here—to convene in one place the world’s leading investigative journalists, premier computer engineers, current and former anticrime fighters, and, most poignantly and inspirationally, survivors who have transcended their own suffering at the hands of illicit networks to fight for a better world.

It was a bold move for Google to take on this agenda, given the potential risks—and the expectations you have now created. But after listening to Eric Schmidt speak about using technology to ensure “freedom from fear,” it is clear that Google is a different sort of company.

Now only a madman would try to summarize what we have learned over these two extraordinary days. I’ll just offer a few reflections based on insights we heard from this stage and in the labs.

The summit confirmed a few assumptions we had going into this project:

The good news from this summit is that illicit networks are not invincible. Forces of opposition do exist—and they can be mobilized in new, creative ways.

Now, I often feel like the last analog guy in a digital world. But over the past two days I have seen time and again how we can harness information technology to combat illicit networks.

So yes, we all know technology is a double-edged sword that cuts both ways. But it is a weapon that we cannot afford to leave in the hands of criminals, while we unilaterally disarm.

Now, before we pat ourselves on the back, let’s remember that our work has just started at this summit. I like to think that Google Ideas has created a new, licit network. And it is our job to keep that network alive and vibrant, to leave here committed to empowering the forces of opposition.

Yesterday from this podium, Eric Schmidt invoked Franklin D. Roosevelt, so it is only appropriate to close with a well-known phrase from Winston Churchill, who attended a few summits of his own with President Roosevelt.

This summit is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, at best, the end of the beginning.

The Council looks forward to working with Google Ideas, Tribeca Films, and all of you on this agenda in the months and years ahead.

Thank you so much.