Moises Naim - The End of Power

PRAISE FOR THE END OF POWER

In his new book called The End of Power, Moiss Nam goes so far as to say that power is actually decaying. I actually find the argument rather persuasive.

General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

I particularly enjoyed The End of Power by Moiss Nam.... It is particularly relevant for big institutions like GE.

Jeff Immelt, CEO, General Electric

Moiss Nams The End of Power offers a cautionary tale to would-be Lincolns in the modern era. Nam is a courageous writer who seeks to dissect big subjects in new ways. At a time when critics of overreaching governments, big banks, media moguls and concentrated wealth decry the power of the 1%, Mr. Nam argues that leaders of all typespolitical, corporate, military, religious, unionface bigger, more complex problems with weaker hands than in the past.

Wall Street Journal

Analytically sophisticated... [a] highly original, inter-disciplinary meditation on the degeneration of international power.

Washington Post

Nam produces a fascinating account of the way states, corporations and traditional interest groups are finding it harder to defend their redoubts... (He) makes his case with eloquence.

Financial Times

A timely and timeless book.

Booklist

Having served as editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy and the executive director of the World Bank, Nam knows better than most what power on a global scale looks like.... [A] timely, insightful, and eloquent message.

Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Nam argues that global institutions of power are losing their ability to command respect. Whether considering institutions of government, military, religion or business, the author believes their power to be in the process of decaying.... A data-packed, intriguing analysis.

Kirkus Reviews

The End of Power will change the way you read the news, the way you think about politics, and the way you look at the world.

Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America

In my own experience as president of Brazil I observed first hand many of the trends that Nam identifies in this book, but he describes them in a way that is as original as it is delightful to read. All those who have poweror want itshould read this book.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Moiss Nams extraordinary new book will be of great interest to all those in leadership positionsbusiness executives, politicians, military officers, social activists and even religious leaders. Readers will gain a new understanding of why power has become easier to acquire and harder to exercise. The End of Power will spark intense and important debate worldwide.

George Soros

After you read The End of Power you will see the world through different eyes. Moiss Nam provides a compelling and original perspective on the surprising new ways power is acquired, used, and lostand how these changes affect our daily lives.

Arianna Huffington

Moiss Nam is one of the most trenchant observers of the global scene. In The End of Power, he offers a fascinating new perspective on why the powerful face more challenges than ever. Probing into the shifting nature of power across a broad range of human endeavors, from business to politics to the military, Nam makes eye-opening connections between phenomena not usually linked, and forces us to re-think both how our world has changed and how we need to respond.

Francis Fukuyama

Copyright 2013 by Moiss Nam

Hardcover first published in 2013 by Basic Books,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

Paperback first published in 2014 by Basic Books

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th floor, New York, NY 10107.

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Designed by Trish Wilkinson

Set in 11.5 point Minion Pro

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Nam, Moiss.

The end of power : from boardrooms to battlefields and churches to states, why being in charge isnt what it used to be / Moiss Nam.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-465-06568-4 (e-book) 1. Power (Social sciences) 2. Organization. I. Title.

HN49.P6N35 2013

303.3dc23

2012049642

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Susana, Adriana, Claudia, Andres, Jonathan, and Andrew

CONTENTS

POWER MAY FEEL ABSTRACT, BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE MOST ATTUNED TO itnamely, the powerful themselvesits flow and ebb can have a visceral edge. After all, those in positions of great power are best positioned to spot limits on their effectiveness and to feel frustration over the gap between the power they expect their rank to convey and the power they actually have. In my own small way, I experienced such constraints back in February 1989. At the time I had been named, at age thirty-six, the minister of development in the then-democratic government of my home country, Venezuela. Soon after we took office in a landslide election victory, we faced riots in Caracastriggered by the anxiety over our plans to cut subsidies and raise fuel pricesthat paralyzed the city with violence, fear, and chaos. Suddenly, and despite our victory and apparent mandate, the economic reform program that we had championed acquired a very different meaning. Instead of symbolizing hope and prosperity, it was now seen as the source of street violence, increased poverty, and deeper inequality.

But the most profound insight I had at that time was one I would not fully comprehend until years later. It dwelt in the enormous gap between the perception and the reality of my power. In principle, as one of the main economic ministers, I wielded tremendous power. But in practice, I had only a limited ability to deploy resources, to mobilize individuals and organizations, and, more generally, to make things happen. My colleagues and even the president had the same feeling, though we were loath to acknowledge that our government was a hobbled giant. I was tempted to chalk this up to Venezuela itself: surely our sense of powerlessness had to do with our countrys notoriously weak and malfunctioning institutions. Such weakness could not be universal.

Yet later I would appreciate that it was universal indeed, or nearly so, among those with the experience of power. Fernando Henrique Cardosothe respected former president of Brazil and founding father of that countrys successsummed it up for me. I was always surprised at how powerful people thought I was, he told me when I interviewed him for this book. Even well-informed, politically sophisticated individuals would come to my office and ask me to do things that showed they assumed I had far more power than I really did. I always thought to myself, if only they knew how limited the power of any president is nowadays. When I meet with other heads of state, we often share very similar recollections in this respect. The gap between our real power and what people expect from us is the source of the most difficult pressure any head of state has to manage.