“Peace and conflict studies knowledge has expanded dramatically over the last 25 years, and we know much more about why conflicts start and how they can be prevented. At the same time, innovation and technology start-ups have started to try to tackle peace and conflict issues, beginning new efforts to create more peaceful societies. But innovators have thus far had little interaction with peace scholars as they try to build peace, even as many express a deep interest to positively improve the lives of those in fragile and conflict-affected regions across the globe.”
“While allocating tech billions for future moon shots seems commonplace, it’s much harder to get funding for projects that actively help those suffering from conflict and violence today. We contend that there is untapped value in promoting joint efforts between academics and innovators to build new violence prevention and peacebuilding tools, and being guided by state-of-the-art peace research will maximize their chances for positive societal impact. By integrating researchers’ deep knowledge of the economic, political and spatial dynamics of peace and conflict processes with innovation and entrepreneurship, we can develop new technologies that support human security and peacebuilding around the globe.”
These are the sentiments and opinions offered by Harvard University seeking to inform us on peace in innovation. Stanford University also provides an explanation on the notion stating that “it acts as an intervening agent, augmenting our ability to engage positively with others.” Former relief-worker, investment banker, and social entrepreneur, Mark Nelson founded and co-directs the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab, where he researches mass collaboration and mass interpersonal persuasion.
In the words of The Lab’s approach to peace, “it is rooted in the concept of captology and goes something like this: Positive behaviour changes can be designed through persuasive interventions, and these interventions can be technology driven. In other words, machines can be designed to influence human beliefs and behaviours in a way that increases peace. Interventions that use persuasive tech can be carried out by a small group of peace entrepreneurs, galvanizing a crowd to change their behaviour and work for peaceful outcomes.”
Mass collaboration in this instance would prove instrumental in increasing the pace and rate in which innovations are developed and carried out. This means that collaboration is in the form of a group effort to come up with a lasting solution which is enjoyed by all the parties involved. In this case, innovations are used to avoid scenarios of conflict as well as war situations.
Peace innovations, new technologies, inventions, and tools strategically designed and specifically implemented to attempt to build peace, can have real-world, transformative impacts for vulnerable people. Multi-stakeholder approaches including academics, policymakers and local communities can give us the best chances for success, in everything from refugee integration and urban violence concerns to private sector contributions for early warning systems in conflict zones. Therefore, providing contextual conflict-sensitive guidance to peacebuilding innovators will measurably help their products have greater impacts for affected communities. As such, strategic partnerships between innovators, businesses, scholars, governments and philanthropists, including funding measures that formalize peace within existing innovation platforms, can meaningfully contribute to conflict reduction and global peacebuilding efforts. Innovations have the power to do anything if developed properly and with good intent.
Article by @nelson.madzima
