Publications & Tools

The new role of social media in popular revolutions and other political change is not the inevitable force for good some commentators portray it as, but its complicated effects are promoting a wider transfer of geopolitical power from traditional nation-states to individuals and institutions, according to speakers at a conference held at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on September 16.

At a USIP public event held on October 19, 2010, researchers presented a mapping conducted by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and Morningside Analytics. The event was part of USIP’s ongoing Blogs and Bullets initiative. This Peace Brief summarizes the methodology and findings of the Berkman Center/Morningside Analytics researchers and the panel discussion that followed.

In this report from the United States Institute of Peace’s Centers of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding, and Media, Conflict, and Peacebuilding, a team of scholars from The George Washington University, in cooperation with scholars from Harvard University and Morningside Analytics, critically assesses both the “cyberutopian” and “cyberskeptic” perspectives on the impact of new media on political movements.