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Untying the Gordian Knot: ICT for Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding

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Information Communications Technology (ICT) in South Asia, as well as in the rest of the world, is an experiment in progress.  Reading the wealth of literature on ICT, it is easy to forget that it is not a panacea for problems facing developing nations. Normative assumptions about ICT tend in most cases to outstrip knowledge of how technology is actually used .  ICTs cannot magically liberate people, alleviate poverty, erase the ‘digital divide’ , and ensure prosperity. Much of the literature written on ICT does not treat it as one factor amidst a myriad of others that shape inter-state and intra-state relations in developing countries. Furthermore, in planning for and using ICT, many countries often concentrate on the intervention itself, rather than what they want to accomplish through it. It must be remembered that ICT is a means to an end, not an end in itself . This study will concentrate on the increasing confluence between ICT, conflict transformation and peacebuilding.  Case studies in this field are rare, since synergies between these fields are still at an embryonic stage.  The proposed study will examine Info Share, an ICT initiative in Sri Lanka that is involved in the peace process, as an on-going experiment in the use of these radical new technologies to augment traditional conflict transformation techniques on the ground to help strengthen an on-going peace process. Peacebuilding processes could be greatly strengthened if organisations, peoples and regions are connected in effective multi-sectoral and peace building networks and provided with active and open knowledge banks – with instant access to effective peace building approaches and case studies. By building local, regional and national peacebuilding networks between and within government, local authorities, political stakeholders, civil society and international support and resource institutions, ICT has the potential to shape powerful conflict transformation partnerships. The proposed study will be a critical exploration of the underlying assumptions of the creative use of ICT in peacebuilding and conflict transformation processes to encourage holistic peace building practices that in turn lead to a just and lasting peace. In doing so, this paper will also examine conflict transformation as the necessary bedrock for successful peacebuilding interventions using ICT. Lastly, the study will acknowledge the limitations of using ICT and argue that used in isolation and without any supporting structures and holistic frameworks necessary for facilitating conflict transformation – the success of ICT interventions will be undermined and might even serve to exacerbate existing conflicts by creating new rifts within and between communities. However, this study will not examine concepts of ‘Netwar’ (Arquilla and Ronfeldt, 1996) – the appropriation of new technologies by non-state actors for acts of terrorism - or the broader arguments of using technology for social development. There is also inadequate space to discuss fully the ways in which technology is being appropriated by societal forces who act as spoilers in a peace process. One recalls the statement of Kofi Anan, who said that “The same Internet that has facilitated the spread of human rights and good governance norms has also been a conduit for propagating intolerance and has diffused information necessary for building weapons of terror.” The author is cognisant of these lacunae, and submits that a fuller understanding of the complexities of developing a new paradigm of peacebuilding using ICT dictates that further research in this area is vital.