PeaceTech: Digital Transformation to End Wars
Description
Why are we willing to believe that technology can bring about war. but not peace?
PeaceTech: Digital Transformation to End War is the world's first book dealing with the use of technological innovation to support peace and transition processes. Through an interwoven narrative of personal stories that capture the complexity of real-time peace negotiation, Bell maps the fast-paced developments of PeaceTech, and the ethical and practical challenges involved.
Bell locates PeaceTech within the wider digital revolution that is also transforming the conduct of war. She lays bare the 'double disruption' of peace processes, through digital transformation, and through changing conflict patterns that make processes more difficult to mount. Against this backdrop - can digital peacebuilding be a force for good? Or do the risks outweigh the benefits?
PeaceTech provides a 12-Step Manifesto laying out the types of practice and commitmentneeded for successful use of digital tools to support peace processes.
This open access book will be invaluable primer for business tech entrepreneurs, peacebuilders, the tech community, and students of international relations, informatics, comparative politics, ethics and law; and indeed for those simply curious about peace process innovation in the contemporary world.
Reviews / Votes
"There is a wealth of information about how technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics are changing the conduct of contemporary warfare. . Both books stress that ethics should never be an afterthought of digital peacebuilding practice, but that they should be integrated into PeaceTech developments from the start. . anyone interested in the future developments that digitalization may bring to contemporary dynamics of conflict and peace will find these books to provide valuable and timely insights." (Fabian Hofmann, International Affairs, Vol. 101 (2), 2025)
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Person
Christine Bell
is Professor of Constitutional Law. Assistant Principal (Global Justice), and Executive Director of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), based at the School of Law, at the University of Edinburgh. A long-time expert and practitioner in the field of peace processes and constitution-making, she manages digital and PeaceTech innovation.
Content
1 PeaceTech World.- Part I What Is PeaceTech?.- 2 PeaceTech: What Is It?.- 3 PeaceTech Technologies.- 4 PeaceTech Drivers.- 5 Double Disruption.- Part II Doing PeaceTech.- 6 PeaceTech Ecosystem.- 7 Doing One Thing.- 8 PeaceTech as Hack.- 9 Conflict Early Warning Systems.- 10 Peace and Space.- 11 Peace Analytics.- Part III PeaceTech Challenges.- 12 Doing PeaceTech.- 13 Ethics and Morals.- 14 PeaceTech Futures.