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Latest Policy Briefs and Reports
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
Digital Warfare and Peace: Learning from Ukraine’s response to the Russian invasion
Policy Brief No.158 - May, 2023 • By Anna Romandash
This Policy Brief explores the ongoing infowars in the Russia–Ukraine war which began in February 2022. Since 2014, due to the Kremlin’s propaganda channels, troll armies, and “useful idiots” in the West and beyond, Russia was able to control the narrative on the situation in Donbas and Crimea and significantly diminish both support and interest toward Ukraine. However, after the start of the full-scale war in 2022, Ukraine shifted international views on the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s efforts significantly contributed to Russia’s digital isolation and mainstreamed Ukraine’s counter-narratives using open-source data, digital allies, and successful communication campaigns.
Pacific Community Relocations: Comparing Relocation Efforts in Alaska and Pacific
Policy Brief No.157 - April, 2023 • By Barrett Ristroph
This Policy Brief compares communities in Alaska and the Pacific Islands, which are worlds apart in many ways, yet share cascading impacts from climate change. Communities in both geographies that may want to relocate have limited resources to do so without external assistance. Each country should have policies in place to provide assistance for community-led relocation based on the preferences, knowledge, and values of the affected communities. The private sector and churches could also play an important role. In many ways, relocation processes on Pacific Islands are more sophisticated than those in Alaska, and the United States could learn from the Pacific experience.
Cooperative Security, Arms Control and Disarmament
The Minefields That Could Sink SSN AUKUS
Policy Brief No.156 - April, 2023 • By Ramesh Thakur
This Policy Brief considers the concealed minefields that could yet sink the AUKUS nuclear sub project and lead to finger-pointing recriminations. US President Joe Biden and British and Australian Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese have unveiled the agreement on the way forward for the new tripartite security pact AUKUS to equip Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. AUKUS integrates and strengthens Australia’s historic alliances and embeds the UK and the US firmly into Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy. President Biden has described the naval partnership as a critical instrument, at this ‘inflection point in history’, to stabilise the Indo-Pacific region at a time of rising tensions and the distinct possibility of a war over Taiwan.
Cooperative Security, Arms Control and Disarmament
The Geopolitics of the Middle East
Policy Brief No.155 - March, 2023 • By Sverre Lodgaard
This Policy Brief discusses the new geopolitical landscape and its implications for war and peace in the Middle East. US retrenchment from the Middle East—long in waiting—has caused Arab states to seek new partnerships in order to reduce their vulnerabilities in a turbulent world. The geopolitical fault line between East and West has moved westward, from Iran to Saudi Arabia, and the new agreement between Iran and these countries has a huge potential to turn the region in a cooperative direction. Given all the uncertainties, however, the significance of it can only be tested over time.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
A Roadmap for Collaboration on Technology and Social Cohesion
Policy Brief No.154 - February, 2023 • By Lisa Schirch
This commissioned report is one of several resulting from a year-long research project funded by the Toda Peace Institute’s program on Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding The tech sector wields enormous power over the thoughts and actions of billions of people. Toxic polarization stymies governments from helping to solve pressing problems from Covid to the climate crisis. Humanity needs technology that builds trust and civic health rather than outrage and division, and people who understand how to build bridges in divided communities to be better equipped to use technology. In 2020, a working group formed to explore a Council on Technology and Cohesion to bring practitioners who heal division together with people who design technology. This report maps the kinds of activities that could help to build a movement for prosocial technology to support social cohesion.