Science, Technology and Peacebuilding
Using input from people around the world, this Center of Innovation identifies promising new practices, conducts research, and develops innovative strategies for applying science and technology to the challenge of peacebuilding in fragile states, active conflict and post-conflict societies.
It is widely accepted that the pace of technological innovation is faster now than at any time in human history. Recent advances in fields as disparate as biotechnology, desalinization, information technology, agricultural engineering and logistics, to name just a few, may provide novel opportunities to help prevent and resolve violent conflict.
This Center, newly established and headed by Sheldon Himelfarb, was created to identify these opportunities as well as to develop a framework for encouraging continuous advancement in the interplay between science, technology and peacebuilding. To this end, USIP is coordinating global collaboration across diverse groups in order to pool and disseminate ideas that will lead to scientific and technical innovation in promoting peace.
Recent Center Highlights
Israel's Airstrike on Syria's Nuclear Reactor: Preventive War and the Nonproliferation Regime
July 14, 2008 | Public Event
This event addressed the issue of whether the seeming toleration of Israel's strike on Syria’s Al Kibar facility indicates that the international community is losing confidence in the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Security Council to enforce the nonproliferation regime.
First Annual INPROL Meeting
May 20, 2008 | Public Event
USIP’s International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL) recently held its first annual conference. INPROL is a rapidly growing virtual community that is developing human capacity and intellectual resources required to promote the rule of law in countries transitioning from war to peace.
Measuring Nuclear Advances: Proliferation Ladders, Iran, and the NIE
April 3, 2008 | Workshop
USIP Senior Fellow Avner Cohen recently assembled a workshop of top nuclear proliferation experts to rethink the structure of the nuclear proliferation ladder in conflict prevention. The purpose of this workshop was to evaluate whether the existing distinctions used in the National Intelligence Estimate between accumulating fissile material and nuclear weaponization remain relevant in light of the case of Iran.
- Middle East - USIP funded a grant on the Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network, which brought 20 influential bloggers to Egypt from across the Middle East to examine the actual and potential use of blogging technology in improving interfaith relations in the region.
Search for funded grants
- Democratic Republic of Congo - USIP organized a meeting of the Congo Peacebuilding Forum on May 17, 2007 to explore the importance of developing, managing, and tracking natural resources in Congo to avoid fueling further conflict and to build a more stable peace.
Read about the meeting
- Iraq - USIP and the Global Peace Initiative of Women recently convened the Iraqi Youth Dialogue in Dharamsala, India. The conference recognized that the limits of violence and curfews meant that the Internet was one of the few tools available for peacebuilding. This conference resulted in the Istanbul Declaration," which called for "enhanced access to the Internet, in particular for women and people in rural areas."
The Science, Technology and Peacebuilding Center of Innovation builds on the Institute's history of using information and communication technologies to address peacebuilding. Projects include:
- SENSE Simulations
TheStrategic Economic Needs and Security Exercise (SENSE), originally developed by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), is a computer-based simulation that focuses on negotiations and decision-making in a post-conflict environment. SENSE simulates the resource allocation challenges confronting national and international decision-makers.
- International Network to Promote the Rule of Law (INPROL)
This Internet-based network consists of a consortium of practitioners joined together to promote the rule of law in societies transitioning from war to peace. The online nature of this program allows those serving in the field to exchange information with other experienced practitioners, as well as to access relevant documents, best practices, and related materials.
- Truth Commission Digital Collection
The Truth Commissions Digital Collection, part of the Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Library in International Conflict Management, is a collection constantly under development by the Jeannette Rankin Library Program, containing decrees establishing truth commissions and similar bodies of inquiry worldwide, and the reports issued by such groups.
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