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Latest Policy Briefs and Reports
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
From Airtable to Zoom: An A-to-Z Guide to Digital Tech and Activism 2021
Policy Brief No.107 - April, 2021 • By Nadine Bloch
This policy brief maps how activists are using technology to pursue public interests in human rights, democracy and a livable environment. It looks at how cell phone tech has upped the outreach and mobilising game for campaigns, dives into digital storytelling and fundraising, explores key digital tools for collaboration and training, covers cybersecurity considerations and closes with a broad look at topical creative tech-based nonviolent activist success stories. Though digital tech is no silver bullet for successful campaigns, there are clear uses and recommendations to build power and win with digital technology.
Urban–Rural Re-Relocation as a Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Tuvalu
Policy Brief No.106 - April, 2021 • By Carol Farbotko and Taukiei Kitara
This policy brief discusses customary arrangements in place in Tuvalu that provide extensive and innovative ways in which Tuvaluan people have moved to safer rural areas, both in the past and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Such peaceful urban-rural mobility is also relevant for adaptation to climate change impacts among Tuvaluan people. The authors argue that such customary practices could be prioritised in nurturing resilience in countries across the region, especially where customary links to rural areas are less strong than they are in Tuvalu.
The Rule of Law: Undermined and Under Attack - Questioning the State Monopoly on the Legitimate Use of Physical Force
Policy Brief No.105 - March, 2021 • By Herbert Wulf
This policy brief examines contemporary challenges to the legitimate state monopoly on the use of force and its possible future. The rule of law is being undermined and attacked and the state monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force is almost universally at risk. What are the values and the shortcomings of a legitimate state monopoly on the use of physical force? What does the concept in its ideal form mean and why are these principles questioned and challenged?
Cooperative Security, Arms Control and Disarmament
The Humanitarian Initiative and the TPNW
Policy Brief No.104 - February, 2021 • By Alexander Kmentt
This policy brief outlines the rationale of the Humanitarian Initiative which underpins the TPNW and responds to the counternarratives and critiques against the TPNW presented by nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-umbrella states. At the 2010 NPT Review Conference State parties agreed by consensus to express their “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons". In the following years, non-nuclear-weapon states and civil society representatives focused increasingly on the humanitarian impact and the risks associated with nuclear weapons in what became known as the Humanitarian Initiative. The latest iteration of the initiative’s joint statement in 2015 has been subscribed to by 159 States. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) builds on the Humanitarian Initiative.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
Peacebuilding and the Norms of Technological Change
Policy Brief No.103 - February, 2021 • By Paul C. Heidebrecht
This policy brief argues that, given the challenges of regulating emerging technologies, peacebuilders need to devote more attention to engaging the private sector in order to influence the culture and ultimately the norms of the organisations and individuals closest to the development of advanced technologies. Running throughout this analysis are references to two contrasting contexts: the innovation ecosystems in Silicon Valley, California, and what has at times been referred to as “Silicon Valley North” in Waterloo, Ontario (Canada).