U.S. Institute of Peace PeaceWatch

Information Technologies Can Help Prevent, Manage, and Resolve Conflicts Internationally

Conflict managers call for governments to invest heavily in information technologies for use in preventing humanitarian crises.

Left to right: Richard Johnson, Walter Stadtler, Anne Solomon, Warren Strobel, and Tiffany Danitz.

omplex humanitarian crises in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Africa, and Haiti illustrate the pressing need for the international community to focus on ways to prevent such tragedies before they occur, say relief workers for government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Indeed, the United Nations (UN) Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) has developed two information systems that can provide the kind of detailed information necessary to accurately predict the likelihood that chaos and violence will break out in a country or region, notes Sharon Rusu, head of information services and dissemination for DHA. The problem is not a lack of information, according to a broad range of relief workers, but the lack of political will among governments to respond. And the cost of failing to respond--in both dollars and human lives--is great, they cautioned.

Top: Conference participants address questions to the panelists. Bottom: Donald Krumm of Refugees International.

Rusu and representatives of relief agencies and other organizations discussed their field experiences in conflict prevention, management, and resolution in the Great Lakes region of Africa; Liberia; Chiapas, Mexico; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Serbia; and the Middle East at the U.S. Institute of Peace's "Virtual Diplomacy" conference, held in Washington April 1 and 2 (see Virtual Diplomacy). In a series of panel discussions, speakers presented case studies that addressed specifically the uses of communications and information technologies to facilitate policymaking decisions by governments, NGOs, and communities.

Preventing and Managing Conflict

Sharon Rusu told conference participants that the UN's Department of Humanitarian Affairs has the responsibility to provide timely and reliable information to a broad range of humanitarian relief actors in the field to help them respond to unfolding crises and coordinate their efforts. In recent years, DHA has created two information systems that have worked hand-in-hand in the Great Lakes region of central Africa: the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) and ReliefWeb. IRIN staff collect data from relief workers on the ground and produce analytical reports that are then faxed and e-mailed daily to 1,000 subscribers. IRIN focuses on in-country issues, such as who is where doing what, and how and where they are moving to. "Most importantly, IRIN focuses on the populations who are at risk in a region," Rusu said.

IRIN is also available through ReliefWeb, an Internet web site (www.reliefweb.int) accessed by 10,000 persons around the world daily. ReliefWeb facilitates decision making by providing daily updates on disasters and consolidating information from a wide range of sources, including maps, graphs, and other background materials. The availability of this information can help relief agencies and governments respond more effectively across the spectrum of humanitarian response, from early warning and prevention to reconstruction. Accurate and timely information is vital to exploring and developing sound policy options, Rusu said.

Ted Okada, director of the Washington office of Food for the Hungry, said that political support and funding are badly needed to further develop the kinds of information systems that are technically possible and that would greatly facilitate both humanitarian missions and international peace negotiations. He recommends development of a "Humanitarian Extranet," which--like the Internet--would provide access globally, but--unlike the Internet--only to selected, approved users. The Extranet would essentially provide "back channel" information and communication opportunities that would enable aid agencies and governments to assess unfolding humanitarian emergencies, Okada explained in a post-conference interview. For governments, a major benefit would be to give them time to determine appropriate responses before being pressured by mass media to discuss their position or make a commitment to help publicly. Perhaps most importantly, Okada said, creation of an Extranet would help to build a collaborative culture among relief workers, aid agencies, donors, and governments.

Opposition and Reconciliation

A number of "Virtual Diplomacy" speakers described situations in which they or their organizations had used the Internet to manage ongoing conflicts. They described how global networks allowed them to bypass censorship, exchange information, and mobilize communities and groups to influence policymaking. Adolfo Dunayevich, technical director at LaNeta, an Internet service provider that supports NGOs working on peace and justice issues in Mexico City, described how after the Chiapas rebellion began in 1994, the Mexican government used radio and TV in an effort to monopolize the description of what was happening. To provide a more accurate picture of events, NGOs began posting information about the rebellion on the Internet.

Expatriate Burmese and sympathetic communities in the United States and elsewhere used the Internet to create grass-roots support internationally for the pro-democracy movement in Burma, said Warren P. Strobel, White House correspondent for the Washington Times and senior fellow at the Institute in 1995-96 (see Mass Media). The upshot of the movement's efforts in Massachusetts was to get a number of large U.S. companies to pull out of the country, which is currently under the control of a repressive military regime. Veran Matic, editor-in-chief at independent Radio B92 in Belgrade, Serbia, described how the station, NGOs, and opposition groups used the Internet in 1996-97 to bypass the government clampdown on information during the pro-democracy street protests. Having their own communications network enabled them to keep the opposition movement informed and mobilized, he said.

The Internet also is proving to be useful in the complex process of building institutions of civil society and establishing the rule of law once a cease-fire has been put in place, a conflict unwinds, and reconciliation begins. Henry Perritt, professor of law at Villanova University School of Law, described Project Bosnia, which promotes the rule of law in Bosnia and Central and Eastern Europe by connecting legal institutions, the press, and sources of government information through the Internet. He is the project's founder and director. "The project makes the raw materials of democracy available on the Internet," he said, adding that it helps officials and others make informed decisions which significantly impact their societies.

Michael Reagan, a communications officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, called for the United States and other governments to develop improved communications capabilities for use in preventing and managing humanitarian emergencies, and for use in the vital reconciliation and reconstruction phases that follow most crises. The international community "should be marshaling a mini-Marshall Plan" for developing such information systems, he concluded.

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