Information and Communication Technology and Peacebuilding Summary of a Workshop (2008) / Chapter Skim
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in promoting peace and conflict resolution. The one-day workshop was designed to consider current and emerging technologies and strategies for employing them in conflict management and diplomacy.
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Story-telling, sharing narratives Reducing misperceptions about the capabilities or intentions of "the other" Peacekeeping: ICT that supports Locating and tracking fighters' movements (e.g., drones) Increasing peacekeepers' ability to see in extreme weather conditions Making peacekeeping forces appear larger than they are Detecting mines Locating refugees Tracking the flow of arms and illicit trade in natural resources Breaking down language barriers Preserving evidence of mass atrocities Prevention: ICT that supports Advanced warning of nascent conflicts through predictive analysis and modeling Giving disenfranchised or repressed people a voice Preventing the rise of, or the violent actions of, extremists Reducing competition for resources, including food, water, territory, and mineral resources Mitigating environmental degradation and climate change, which may exacerbate conflicts over water and food 2
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USIP was created by Congress in the mid-1980s as an independent institution "to strengthen our national capacity to deal with international conflicts without resorting to violence." At first the organization's efforts centered on research, but after the cold war, the group began to send people into zones of conflict around the world to work directly on conflict resolution projects, initially in the Balkans and now in over a dozen regions.
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Therefore, the most important goal of USIP is to help manage conflicts so they do not degenerate into violence. Drivers of Conflict Unlike most conflicts during the World War II and cold war eras, conflicts today are being driven by new actors and new factors: religious extremism; social instability and failing states; economic and social disparities resulting from rapid development (e.g., in China and India)
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These virtual societies not only reinforce people's sense of empowerment, but they can also create the conditions for civil resistance, because information sharing increases transparency about world events and improves situational awareness in areas of conflict. For example, the people who brought down Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and subsequently Erap Estrada, coordinated their actions largely through cell phones.
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One of the problems NDI tries to address is weak institutional capacity, by pinpointing weaknesses and directing its intervention toward shoring up those critical links in the democratic chain. Election monitoring is one component in building a democratic assistance program, because elections are milestones in building democracies.
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First, it provides accurate, reliable, public statements quickly enough to have a political effect. As long as the monitoring group has the public trust, text messages increase confidence in the election results and reinforce the integrity of the process.
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Rambaldi explained what participatory 3-D modeling is and gave examples of how it has been used to resolve conflicts, most often in remote areas between indigenous peoples with different levels of education and cultural backgrounds, and even speaking different languages. Most of these areas are largely inaccessible, sometimes with no electrical power or even buildings to store equipment.
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The model, a "tangible translation" of geosynchronous satellite imagery and local knowledge created by the communities that are parties to the dispute, enables people who are not used to reading maps or 2-D geographical images to see their land from a bird's-eye view. The creation of the tangible map necessarily involves peer-to-peer dialogue among disputants who promote their issues and concerns and pinpoint areas of disagreement.
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For instance, if the information from the map is published, it adds value and authority to local knowledge, and indigenous people may then be able to communicate, peer-to-peer, with government officials and participate in decisions that affect them.
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We must be open to diversity." Another attendee pointed out that giving people better information than they had before, for example, informing everyone of the importance of the watershed and the consequences of not having it in their territory, might lead to even more conflicts than before.
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InfoShare's approach is based on the notion of "satisfycing" solutions, or doing as much as possible within the limits of the highly volatile and violent conditions on the ground. InfoShare is increasingly leveraging the widespread availability of mobile phones in Sri Lanka to complement the use of PCs as tools of conflict transformation.
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The site was recently awarded an Excellence in Journalism Award from the Society for Communication Research in Boston. created a site for monitoring and recording human rights violations in Sri Lanka.
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Comments by Respondents Three respondents were asked to comment on the topics raised in the panel presentations. The respondents for this panel were Irwin Jacobs, chairman, Qualcomm; Deborah Estrin, professor of computer science, UCLA; and Bran Ferren, co-chairman and chief creative officer, Applied Minds.
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Finally, Dr. Jacobs suggested that cell phones with GPS capability might be useful in conjunction with 3-D mapping for pinpointing locations and thus speeding up the mapping process.
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One of the advantages of cell phones is that people do not have to be able to read or write to use them. If the target population for election monitoring has a high rate of illiteracy, then obviously text messaging could not be used.
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Although he is a firm believer in the value of hard models, he said, many governments try to ensure that their populations are taught from a specific perspective that matches the administration's agenda. "Simply giving people more information does not necessarily lead to a predictable result." On the third topic, human beings remember their world and interact with it via stories that take place in three-dimensional space, Mr.
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However, he said, the developed world was not willing, "because of the expense," to use the most effective technologies when dealing with problems in Third World countries, even though the cost to the free world of not dealing with these issues is exponentially higher. He suggested that one could use a wideband teleconference link to bring two hostile tribes together that might kill each other if they were in the same room and present them with a novel conflict resolution using "the very best high-resolution, high-depth, optical fiber .
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For example, in Burma, he said, mobile phones were used to show what was happening there until the government cracked down on their use. Stories are still being communicated, however.
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Packer was senior legal adviser and then director of the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) , an institution dedicated to prevention of conflict through quiet diplomacy.1 He has worked with transitional societies across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as in Iraq, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic and elsewhere both independently and with intergovernmental organizations to encourage institutional capacity building for effective preventive diplomacy.
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"Job number one, for which most of the world would be greatly appreciative, is to achieve negative peace," he said. To actually build peace requires transforming negative peace to positive peace, which includes declaring the value of life per se, and creating opportunities and standards for social stability and trust that enables planning and investment in economic and social development, what might be called "civilization." In short, peace building implies moving beyond negative peace, and even positive peace, to "our way of conceiving of others and engaging with them." Giving citizens opportunities to invest individually and collectively in their lives and to direct resources toward constructive purposes for their societies requires certain conditions.
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In general, existing ICT tools, such as mobile phones, satellite dishes, Skype, Google Earth, and others, may be useful but also entail risks. In conclusion, he said, peace negotiations often fail because of poor communication and poor understanding.
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Dr. Ackerman provided background information on nonviolent conflict, nonviolent resistance, and civil resistance, all common terms to describe how people living under authoritarian rule might respond when their rights, personal property, fundamental values, and sometimes their lives are threatened and they have no military option for fighting back.
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Another member of the audience said that her group had found that nonviolent resistance is a key prevention strategy that can open a path to nonviolent transition from one regime to another.
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UN peacekeepers are only sent into a situation if a Security Council resolution has been adopted. Resolutions usually include a mandate for a general ceasefire; the monitoring and redeployment of forces; the monitoring of the movement of armed groups; the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants; the return and reintegration of refugees from outside the country and of internally displaced people; the establishment of human rights and civil protections; the restructuring of a police force (which requires a solid, independent judiciary)
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In addition, technology to help in the tracking of the flow of arms and illicit trade in natural resources would be a great help. Members of peacekeeping forces come from all over the world, bringing different types of equipment and communications technology.
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Kay said he believes that the cell phone culture and Internet Web culture that have sprung up are simply reflections of pop culture, which, in turn, is a reflection of built-in human impulses rather than what we have learned. Math and science, he said, are another order of thinking based on the difficult premise that "the world is not as it seems." Only literate people, he argued, are capable of moving beyond the usual epistemology and understanding this scientific view.
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"You document what is happening, you alleviate suffering, you hope you are not falling into conflict, though often you are, and you try to use storytelling that leads to a solution." Technology plays a critical role in improving humanitarian response to those affected by conflict. Situational awareness tools can be used to help coordinate action to alleviate the suffering of those who are affected by violence, who usually have no voice or mechanism for participating in events.
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"The influence of guns," he said, "can only be countered by the democratization of some other kind of influence. This involves communications, storytelling, monitoring, and negotiating." Respondent 3: Steve Wozniak Steve Wozniak is executive vice president, chief technology officer, and chief visionary officer of Jazz Technologies, Inc.
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Most leaders of nonviolent movements, such as civil resistance movements, would have used violence if it had been an option. They chose a nonviolent path, he said, not because their situation had eased but because it had become more desperate.
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for everyone, they feel compelled to ‘get theirs first' in order to survive. A technology that could let people know when there is enough for everyone would reduce fears and eliminate some conflicts." Another participant referred to the simulation game, A Force More Powerful, which teaches nonviolent resistance.
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The other is for building peace and mitigating the consequences of violence in specific locations where violent conflict continues or has just ended. The discussion continued with an attempt to describe the things that can be done, rather than should be done.
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All of them, he said, have "global initiatives." FINAL COMMENTS Workshop steering committee Chair Jack Gibbons and USIP President Richard Solomon closed the workshop with brief final comments.
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explore with greater focus what existing and emerging technologies can contribute toward this goal. "We want to follow through and figure out the way to build on this effort." 34
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