Information And Communication Technology And Peacebuilding

Those who would use information and communication technology (ICT) in the cause of peace need to be cognizant of the risks as well as the benefits. ICT can facilitate positive dialogue but also hate speech. It can be used to fight corruption but also facilitate it. Simply giving people more information does not necessarily lead to predictable or positive results. As people become more informed, they may become more motivated to change their circumstances and to do so violently. On December 14, 2007, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) convened a group of experts in diverse fields to consider the role of ICT 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. It also aimed to explore how organizations with a role in promoting peace, like the U.S. Institute of Peace, can most effectively leverage technology in carrying out their missions. Information and Communication Technology and Peacebuilding: Summary of a Workshop reviews the group's discussions on number of key issues, illuminates certain practitioner needs, and suggests possible next steps.

infoDev is exploring the transformative role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can have in post-conflict nations during the process of reconstruction. The case studies look at countries at different stages of post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan, Liberia, Rwanda and Timor-Leste, and post-revolution in Tunisia.

This report from ICT4Peace project describes the background to the project before prsented some selected examples of how information technology has been used for the prevention of conflict and aid with recovery.

"The Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding, and Peace Formation offers an authoritative and comprehensive overview of peacebuilding, statebuilding, and peace formation. With contributions from over thirty distinguished and leading scholars, the Handbook provides a timely, engaging, and critical overview of conceptual foundations, political implications, and tensions at the global, regional, and local levels. It examines the key policies, practices, examples, and discourses underlining various segments of peacebuilding, statebuilding, and peace formation both as discursive formulations and as policy practices. Organized around four major thematic sections, the Handbook offers a state-of-the-art synthesis of the most pressing contemporary peace and conflict issues and charts new pathways for responding to transnational insecurities"--

In our progressively changing environment, it is of crucial importance to deepen our understanding of peace between people and how leadership can enhance that by 'leading for peace'. This book proposes a useful framework for all leaders (including business, political leaders and peace developers) on how to attain peace between people. The book is presented in four sections: 1. Peace leadership in perspective: Discussions on the nature and meaning of peace leadership, important building blocks for peace leadership (emotional, social and communal intelligence), and a peace leadership-in-action model (which forms the basis of the book). 2. Implementation strategies focus on lead self, lead with others and lead communities. Lead self includes: leading peace through self, others and the community, the role of wisdom and spirituality in leading self and others, and individual, social and cultural inertia preventing humanity from attaining peace. Lead others includes: leadership theories which support peace leadership, the improvement of cultural intelligence amongst peace leaders, and women's role in peace building. Lead communities includes: peace leadership in the public and private sectors, healthcare for the vulnerable and its meaning and contribution towards peace leadership, and working from helplessness to serving the community. 3. Tools and initiatives to become a highly effective peace leader, including information and communication technological innovations for peace leaders and sport as a tool for peace building. 4. Concluding thoughts. Concluding thoughts are given, with the emphasis on what we have learned and looking ahead. This editorial book provides a significant contribution within the emerging peace leadership discipline as the international community, non-governmental organisations, and the public and private sectors struggle to formulate sustainable peace initiatives at the tribal, local and communal societal level.

This book analyses the use of communication in resolving conflicts, with a focus on de-escalation and processes of peacebuilding and peace formation. From the employment of hate radio in the Rwanda genocide, to the current conflict between Russia and the Ukraine following events in the Crimea, communication and the media are widely recognized as powerful tools in conflicts and war. Although there has been significant academic attention on the relationship between the media, conflict and war, academic efforts to understand this relationship have tended to focus primarily on the links between communication and conflict, rather than on communication and peace. In order to make sense of peace it is essential to look at communication in its many facets, mediated or not. This is true within many of the diverse strands that make up the field of communication and peace, but it is also true in the sense that a holistic and interdisciplinary approach is missing from the literature. This book addresses this widely acknowledged lacuna by providing an interdisciplinary perspective on the field, bringing together relevant, but so far largely isolated, streams of research. In doing so, it aims to provide a platform for further reflection of the meaning of, and requirements for, peace in our contemporary world with a focus on de-escalation, conflict transformation, reconciliation and processes of peacebuilding – as opposed to conflict escalation or crisis intervention. This volume will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, peacebuilding, media and communication studies, security studies and IR in general.

Peacebuilding is explained by combining interpretive frameworks (paradigms) that have evolved from the subfields of international relations and comparative politics.

This book provides a state-of-the-art overview and assessment of the status quo and future of the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) field. International, comparative, and interdisciplinary approaches have been utilized. Written by leading ODR scholars, the first part of the book includes an in-depth assessment of ODR, its applications, and its future in a comparative and analytical context. The second section offers a regional oriented approach, where the prospects, challenges, and success of ODR - and its applications in the North America, Latin America, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia - are mapped and fully addressed. The book is a must read text by scholars, practitioners, academics, and researchers in the dispute resolution and information technology field.