Digital technologies present new opportunities for UN peacemaking efforts. At the same time, certain malicious uses of the technologies in conflict risk create new risks to collective peace and security. The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) is undertaking several initiatives to deepen UN awareness of these developments, build capacity and increase the Department’s preparedness to respond to the new challenges stemming from their use in conflict, and to leverage digital technologies for peace.
In this context, the DPPA Policy and Mediation Division (PMD) is actively exploring how traditional forms of conflict prevention, management and resolution may need to be adapted to deal with the challenges of contemporary conflict.
Monitoring
There is a growing recognition of the need to better understand the role of digital technologies in the environments in which we work, including their use by conflict parties, the effects of such uses and their implications for efforts to manage and resolve conflict. This requires expanding our existing conflict analysis tools to ensure they properly capture new behaviours that can affect mediation and other peacemaking efforts.
To address these new developments and help mediators and political affairs officers navigate the issues, PMD has prepared a Framework for Digital Technology-Sensitive Conflict Analysis.
The proposed framework includes a non-exhaustive list of questions that can be used to enhance conflict analysis, ensuring it is sensitive to the digital technology-related behaviours of different actors in a given conflict situation. Not all questions will be relevant in all circumstances, and some may require more in-depth consideration.
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Cyber incident trackers
A variety of public and private sources, that track major cyber incidents. The Policy and Mediation Division does not vouch for the accuracy of the information contained in these sites which are mentioned only as general resources.
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E-learning Platform on Cyber Hygiene and Digital Risk Management for peacemakers
DPPA has developed the Digital Risk Management E-Learning Platform for Mediators to generate awareness of such risks and build the capacity of mediators to manage them.
Preparedness and Capacity-Building
Regardless of the technologies involved and how they are used, the essential principles of conflict prevention and resolution remain relevant in contemporary conflicts since disputes among humans remain at their core. As such, the peacemaking practice does not necessarily require entirely new models; rather, consideration of digital issues needs to be integrated into existing practices and methods.
Scenario exercises
DPPA is contributing to build the capacity of the UN security pillar to operate in conflicts transformed by the use of digital technologies. Since 2020, the Policy and Mediation Division, with the assistance of external experts, runs scenario exercises using a digital crisis management platform provided by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, to train UN staff from HQ and the field and external experts on how to manage diplomatically ICT related security incidents.
Seminars
PMD promotes online and in-person brainstorming discussions with experts on different topics relevant to digital technology use in conflict. These have included discussions on cyber operations in the context of heightened tensions between States or within States, or an existing armed conflict; cyber operations and ceasefire agreements; crisis management and incident response; the role of the Secretary-General’s good offices; the status of different normative processes relevant to ICTs and international security; human rights-related issues; the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence in conflict; and much more.
For instance, in October 2022, the Mediation Support Unit and the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zürich University, MSU/PMD convened a two-day workshop to explore the convergence between physical warfare, offensive cyber capabilities, and internet shutdowns and their relevance to ceasefire negotiations. Discussions focused on how ceasefire processes may need to adapt to acknowledge the growing military use of these technologies in both inter-state war and internal armed conflicts as well the significant harms which their use are already causing to civilians in certain conflict cases. Substantial attention was paid to the challenges of developing ceasefire provisions to address these new capabilities in a way that is realistic, implementable and verifiable.
