MOISÉS NAÍM

Internationally awarded columnist and thought leader. Former Editor of Foreign Policy (1996 - 2010) and best-selling author of influential books including "The End of Power"


  • Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • His columns have a worldwide audience and have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg and Le Monde, among others
  • He is the chief international columnist and “Global Observer” for El País (Spain) and La Repubblica (Italy)
  • Winner of the Ortega and Gasset award, the most prestigious award for journalism in the Spanish language
  • Director and host of "Efecto Naím" an innovative weekly television program that highlights surprising world trends
  • Former Executive Director of the World Bank
     

Moisés Naím is an internationally-syndicated columnist and best-selling author of influential books including The End of Power, a startling examination of how power is changing across all sectors of society, and Illicit, a detailed exposé on modern criminal networks. In 2011, he launched Efecto Naím, an innovative weekly television program highlighting surprising world trends with visually-striking videos, graphics and interviews with world leaders which is widely watched in Latin America today. Dr. Naím gained international recognition with the successful re-launch of the prominent journal Foreign Policy and, over his fourteen years (1996-2010) as editor, turned the magazine into a modern, award-winning publication on global politics and economics.

His prize-winning work is highly influential in the world of international politics, economics and business. In 2005, Illicit was selected by the Washington Post as one of the best nonfiction books of the year; it was published in 18 languages and is the basis of an Emmy award-winning National Geographic documentary. Of his 2013 book, The End of Power, former US president Bill Clinton said it “will change the way you read the news, the way you think about politics, and the way you look at the world.” Arianna Huffington, president of the Huffington Post, said it is, “a compelling and original perspective on the surprising new ways power is acquired, used and lost – and how these changes affect our daily lives.” 

Recently, he published the novel “Two Spies in Caracas” (2019) and in 2022 “The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics For The 21st Century”, a book in which he analyzes the trends, conditions, technologies, and behaviors that are contributing to the concentration of power, and to the clash between those forces that weaken power and those that strengthen it. 
Dr. Naím’s columns and media commentary have a worldwide audience. He is the chief international columnist and “Global Observer” for El País and La Repubblica, the largest daily newspapers in Spain and Italy. His columns are also carried by all leading newspapers in Latin America, and have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Newsweek, Time, Le Monde, El Estadão and Berliner Zeitung. In 2011, he was honored to receive the Ortega y Gasset prize, the most prestigious award for journalism in the Spanish language.

In 2013, Naím was named one of the world’s leading thinkers by the British magazine Prospect and from 2014-2017, Dr. Naím has been ranked among the top 100 most influential global thought leaders by GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

Dr. Naím is a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Group of Fifty (G50), which brings together top-flight progressive Latin American business leaders, and is a member of the board of directors of several global companies.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Naím served as Venezuela’s Minister of Trade and Industry, as director of Venezuela’s Central Bank, and as executive director of the World Bank. He was previously professor of business and economics and dean of IESA, Venezuela’s leading business school.  Dr. Naím holds MSc and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In April 2020, he was named an Honorary Member of the Venezuelan Academy of Economic Sciences.

Moisés Naím tailors each presentation to the needs of his audience and is not limited to the topics we have listed below. These are topics that have proven valuable to customers in the past and are meant only to suggest the speaker's range and interests:

  • Global Outlook 
  • Globalization
  • Political, Economic and Social Perspectives / Trends
  • Latin American Outlook:  Challenges, realities, and perspectives
  • Media

The End of Power

We know that power is shifting: from West to East and North to South, from presidential palaces to public squares, and from once formidable corporate behemoths to nimble startups. But power is not merely shifting and dispersing - it is also decaying. Those in power today are more constrained in what they can do with it and more at risk of losing it than ever before.

Award-winning columnist Moisés Naím illuminates the struggle between once-dominant megaplayers and the new micropowers challenging them in every field of human endeavor. Drawing on provocative and original research, Naím illustrates how the anti-establishment drive of micropowers can topple tyrants, dislodge monopolies, and open remarkable new opportunities - but also lead to chaos and paralysis.