PrintScience, Technology and Peacebuilding
part of the Centers of Innovation
Center Highlights
Smart Tools for Smart Power: Simulations and Serious Games for Peacebuilding
The Center hosted a full-day multimedia showcase of state-of-the-art simulation and "serious gaming" tools that promise to transform the way that peacebuilding organizations train, plan and collaborate. The "Smart Tools for Smart Power" event featured presentations from such innovators as IBM, the Army War College, EBay, Lockheed Martin, Second Life, and USIP's own Education and Training Center. U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Beth Noveck presented the keynote address, in which she noted that the Obama administration sees "serious" games as an important, largely untapped way to enable innovation in government and civic engagement.
Find details of Smart Tools for Smart Power event here.
Watch a video archive of the event
Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths (Blogs and Bullets Initiative)
On June 17th, 2009 the Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding, in collaboration with Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, presented findings from an unprecedented, comprehensive mapping of the Arabic-language blogosphere. Researchers from the Berkman Center unveiled for the first time a new report on the Arabic-language blogosphere, which applied cutting-edge social network mapping analysis to more than 35,000 blogs from 18 countries. A panel of experts explored the implications of blogging and online discourse for political change and conflict in the Middle East.
Read the BBC Online story about the Mapping the Arab Blogosphere
Archives of the video from the Mapping the Arab Blogosphere event are available here.
USIP/ National Academies Roundtable Planning Session on "Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding"
The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding partnered with National Academies of Science and of Engineering to launch a major, multi-year initiative referred to as a “roundtable” in Academies parlance. The roundtable will provide a forum for multiple stakeholders (government, industry, academia, NGOs) to: (1) Discuss important issues related to the development and application of technology and methods from engineering and science in the service of conflict prevention, peacemaking, and peacekeeping; and (2) Explore opportunities for stakeholder collaboration and action on issues of mutual interest.
Find details about the first planning meeting here.
Mapping Priority Conflict Blogospheres
As a first step in the Mapping Priority Conflict Blogospheres project, the Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding hosted a panel at USIP’s Passing the Baton event on this topic entitled “Blogs & Bullets: The Power of Online Media in Preventing or Igniting Violent Conflict.”
Center Specialists
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Senior Adviser, Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding
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Associate Vice President, Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, & Peacebuilding / Media, Conflict, & 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.
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.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND PEACEBUILDING MISSION
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.
Helps to define and shape new thinking on the role of science and technology in peacebuilding by contributing to the body of knowledge in this nascent field of inquiry.
Works in collaboration with other USIP centers to develop and implement integrated approaches to conflict management that leverage new advances in science and technology.
CROSSCUTTING THEMES AND TARGETS OF INQUIRY
Global Evaluation of Scientific Collaborations and Peacebuilding
The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding is proposing the evaluation of select scientific and technical collaborations between countries to identify the active ingredients that makes them channels of peacebuilding.
USIP/ National Academies Roundtable: "Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding"
The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding partnered with National Academies of Science and of Engineering to launch a major, multi-year roundtable on science, technology, and peacebuilding. An initial planning meeting co-organized by the National Academies and USIP was held on March 12 to clarify the scope of the proposed roundtable’s activities.
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.
- Find a summary of our latest event 'Online Discourse in the Arab World: Dispelling the Myths'
- Watch video of the 'Online Discourse in the Arab World' event
- Click here for more details of our initiative to map priority blogospheres
Smart Tools for Smart Power: Serious Gaming and Simulations for Peacebuilding
The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding has partnered with Education and Training Center/ International (ETC/I) to explore in-depth Serious Gaming and Simulations as tools for improved decision-making, training, and collaboration by peacebuilders.
- Find details about the Smart Tools for Smart Power project here.
- Click here for a summary of the first Smart Tools for Smart Power event
- Watch videos of the Smart Tools for Smart Power event
Addressing Climate Change and Conflict
The Center pursues collaborations and research to predict the potential of climate change in sparking or exacerbating conflict. The Center has pursued this issue from a number of different perspectives.