PrintScience, Technology and Peacebuilding
part of the Centers of Innovation
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Center Highlights
Public Event: Groundtruth: New Media, Technology and the Syria Crisis
This event, provided analysis and insight into the influence of new media in the Syrian crisis, specifically on three types of actors: activists on the ground, journalists and media-makers who are reporting on the crisis, and policy-makers around the world.
PeaceWorks Report: Blogs and Bullets II: New Media and Conflict after the Arab Spring 
In this report, a team of scholars from George Washington University and American University analyze the role of social media in the Arab Spring protests of 2011–12. The authors utilize a unique dataset from bit.ly, the URL shortener commonly associated with Twitter and used by other digital media such as Facebook. With these data, the authors are able to test empirically the claims of “cyberoptimists” and “cyberskeptics” about the role of new media in bringing down autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya and in spurring protests in other parts of the Arab World, such as Bahrain.
News Feature: USIP, National Academy of Engineering Examine Agricultural Extension and Peacebuilding 
With the National Academy of Engineering, USIP hosted a workshop with specialists in and out of government on “Adapting Agricultural Extension to Peacebuilding.” The day-long roundtable examined an innovative concept: conducting peacebuilding activities through the wide-ranging networks of rural agricultural extension agents that are present in many fragile or conflict-ridden countries.
Special Report: Science Diplomacy for Nuclear Security
On January 19, 2011, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control, with cooperation and financial support from the United States Institute of Peace, held a symposium titled “From Reykjavik to New START: Science Diplomacy for Nuclear Security in the 21st Century.” This report summarizes the main ideas offered during the symposium.
Featured Publications & Tools
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.
Part of the Blogs and Bullets series of publications from the Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding, this special report follows an earlier study by
the authors—“Blogs and Bullets: New Media in Contentious Politics” (Peaceworks No. 65)—and is informed by the proceedings from a conference on the same topic held at USIP on July 8, 2010.This report was commissioned by the United States Institute of Peace’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding and Haiti Working Group. It examines the role of Ushahidi, a crisis-mapping platform, in the disaster relief effort following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Center Experts
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Senior Program Officer, Center for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding and Center for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding
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Special Adviser, National Academies-USIP Roundtable on Technology, Science & Peacebuilding
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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.
Initiatives
Roundtable on Technology, Science and Peacebuilding: A New Forum for Innovation in Preventing and Managing Conflict
The Center partnered with the National Academies of Science and of Engineering to launch a major, multi-year roundtable. It will focus on the development and application of technology and knowledge, and on methods from engineering and science in the service of conflict prevention, peacemaking, and peacekeeping.
Blogs & Bullets: Understanding Online Discourse as a Cause of Conflict and Means of Dialogue
Through this initiative, the Center explores ways to utilize quantitative and analytical tools to map online discourse and content in USIP’s priority conflict areas.
Smart Tools for Smart Power: Applying Technology Innovation to the Needs of Peacebuilding
This initiative brings together peacebuilding practitioners and technology innovators to identify high-impact opportunities for technology to bolster peacebuilding and stability operations.
Universities for Ushahidi
The U4U training program brings young people from conflict zones around the world to train them in the use of crowdsourced mapping tools like Ushahidi as well as in the skills of conflict management, helping them address community needs in-country, train others, and join a growing community of global crisis mappers and technology-enabled peacebuilders.
Science Diplomacy for Conflict Prevention: Global Evaluation of Scientific and Engineering Collaborations for Peacebuilding
The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding is evaluating select scientific and technical collaborations between countries to identify the active ingredients that makes them channels of peacebuilding.