Peacekeeping's Digital Economy: The Role of Communication Technologies in Post-conflict Economic Growth
TL;DR: In this article, the United Nations and regional bodies play an increasingly diverse role in the economic development of post-conflict countries, and a key way that missions play an important role in this process.
Abstract: Peacekeeping operations, mandated through the United Nations and regional bodies, play an increasingly diverse role in the economic development of post-conflict countries A key way that missions c
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide as discussed by the authors examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios.
Abstract: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …
940 citations
DOI•
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The Trouble with the Congo suggests a new explanation for international peacebuilding failures in civil wars as discussed by the authors, drawing from more than 330 interviews and a year and a half of forensic research, it develops a case study of the international intervention during the Democratic Republic of the Congo's unsuccessful transition from war to peace and democracy (2003-2006).
Abstract: The Trouble with the Congo suggests a new explanation for international peacebuilding failures in civil wars. Drawing from more than 330 interviews and a year and a half of fi eld research, it develops a case study of the international intervention during the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s unsuccessful transition from war to peace and democracy (2003–2006). Grassroots rivalries over land, resources, and political power motivated widespread violence. However, a dominant peacebuilding culture shaped the intervention strategy in a way that precluded action on local confl icts, ultimately dooming the international efforts to end the deadliest confl ict since World War II. Most international actors interpreted continued fi ghting as the consequence of national and regional tensions alone. Diplomats and United Nations staff viewed intervention at the macro levels as their only legitimate responsibility. The dominant culture constructed local peacebuilding as such an unimportant, unfamiliar, and unmanageable task that neither shocking events nor resistance from certain individuals could convince international actors to reevaluate their understanding of violence and intervention. Through this in-depth analysis , The Trouble with the Congo proposes innovative ways to address civil wars in Africa and beyond.
292 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the situation in Africa as a whole, in an effort to discover what is really going on in mobile telephony in poor countries, especially those lacking an infrastructure of fixed lines.
Abstract: Mobile phones are a crucial mode of communication and welfare enhancement in poor countries, especially those lacking an infrastructure of fixed lines. In recent years much has been written about how mobile telephony in Africa is rapidly reducing the digital divide with developed countries. Yet, when one examines the evidence it is not at all clear what is really happening. In one country, Tanzania, for example, some observers point to the fact that 97% of the population lives under the mobile footprint, while others show that ownership is very limited. These extreme values prompted us to review the situation in Africa as a whole, in an effort to discover what is really going on.
158 citations
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors analyzed the impact of digital economic development on urban economic growth in China and found that the direct and spillover effects of digital economy on urban economy are different.
Abstract: At present, there is a consensus that the digital economy provides a new impetus for sustainable economic development. Based on domestic and foreign literature reviews, this paper focuses on representative industry sectors; we present China’s 2011–2018 digital economy development index, for 173 cities, from a three-level perspective—internet development, digital literacy, and industrial efficiency improvement. Various models, such as the instrumental variable method, the double difference method, the intermediary effect model, and the spatial econometric model were used to quantitatively analyze the impact of digital economic development on urban economic growth in China. The study finds that: (1) digital economic development in China has a positive effect on urban economic growth, and a heterogeneity of effects exists between different cities. (2) Urban employment is the “effect mechanism” of digital economic growth on urban economic growth. (3) The direct effect of digital economic development on urban economic growth in China is positive, the spillover effect is positive, the direct effect is greater than the spillover effect, and the total effect is positive. The research results enrich the measurement methods used in urban digital economic development in China, providing new perspectives for studying the influence mechanisms of digital economic development on urban economic growth.
40 citations
Cites methods from "Peacekeeping's Digital Economy: The..."
...Martin and Bodanac introduced the Cobb-Douglas model for using information and communications technology (ICT) to support local economic development in post-conflict environments; they conducted theoretical demonstrations using the literature on ICT in peacekeeping and economic development [37]....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the practical and ethical implications of systematic data analysis in UN field missions, which can help the leadership of field missions to decide where to deploy troops to protect civilians, guide conflict prevention efforts and help preempt threats to the mission itself.
Abstract: The UN is becoming increasingly data-driven. Until recently, data-driven initiatives have mainly been led by individual UN field missions, but with Antonio Guterres, the new Secretary-General, a more centralized approach is being embarked on. With a trend towards the use of data to support the work of UN staff, the UN is likely to soon rely on systematic data analysis to draw patterns from the information that is gathered in and across UN field missions. This paper is based on UN peacekeeping data from the Joint Mission Analysis Centre (JMAC) in Darfur, and draws on interviews conducted in New York, Mali and Sudan. It will explore the practical and ethical implications of systematic data analysis in UN field missions. Systematic data analysis can help the leadership of field missions to decide where to deploy troops to protect civilians, guide conflict prevention efforts and help preempt threats to the mission itself. However, predictive analysis in UN peace operations will only be beneficial if it also leads to early action. Finally, predictive peacekeeping will not only be demanding of resources, it will also include ethical challenges on issues such as data privacy and the risk of reidentification of informants or other potentially vulnerable people.
29 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the economic effects of conflict, using the terrorist conflict in the Basque Country as a case study, and found that after the outbreak of terrorism in the late 1960's, per capita GDP in the basque country declined about 10 percentage points relative to a synthetic control region without terrorism.
Abstract: This article investigates the economic effects of conflict, using the terrorist conflict in the Basque Country as a case study. We find that, after the outbreak of terrorism in the late 1960's, per capita GDP in the Basque Country declined about 10 percentage points relative to a synthetic control region without terrorism. In addition, we use the 1998-1999 truce as a natural experiment. We find that stocks of firms with a significant part of their business in the Basque Country showed a positive relative performance when truce became credible, and a negative relative performance at the end of the cease-fire.
3,128 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2001TL;DR: Digital Divide as discussed by the authors examines access and use of the Internet in 179 nations world-wide and finds evidence for a democratic divide between those who do and do not use Internet resources to engage and participate in public life.
Abstract: From the Publisher:
Digital Divide examines access and use of the Internet in 179 nations world-wide. A global divide is evident between industrialized and developing societies. A social divide is apparent between rich and poor within each nation. Within the online community, evidence for a democratic divide is emerging between those who do and do not use Internet resources to engage and participate in public life. Part I outlines the theoretical debate between cyber-optimists who see the Internet as the great leveler. Part II examines the virtual political system and the way that representative institutions have responded to new opportunities on the Internet. Part III analyzes how the public has responded to these opportunities in Europe and the United States and develops the civic engagement model to explain patterns of participation via the Internet.
2,824 citations
Book•
30 May 2003
TL;DR: The authors argues that civil war is now an important issue for development and that war retards development, but conversely, development retards war, giving rise to virtuous and vicious circles.
Abstract: Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.
2,069 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide as discussed by the authors examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios.
Abstract: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …
940 citations
Book•
15 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a theory and hypothesis about the resolution of civil war in Africa, and a case study of the conflict in Zimbabwe and the breakdown of Rwanda's peace process.
Abstract: List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii PART ONE: THEORY 1 1. Introduction 3 2. Theory and Hypotheses 19 PART TWO: DATA AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS 45 3. Measuring the Variables 47 4. Quantitative Tests 70 5. A Closer Look at the Findings 92 PART THREE: CASE STUDIES 109 6. Negotiating for Security Guarantees: The Civil War in Zimbabwe 113 7. The Breakdown of Rwanda's Peace Process 143 8. Explaining the Resolution of Civil Wars 160 Appendix 1 169 Appendix 2 171 Bibliography 177 Index 193
937 citations