Cross posted from the TechChange blog This past Thursday and Friday (May 8 & 9) I participated in the ICTs and Violence Prevention workshop hosted by the World Bank’s Social Development Office. We had an excellent collection of experts from across academia, NGOs, and government who discussed the complexities of using technology for violence prevention. One … Continue reading My TechChange Swan Song
Conflict
MONUSCO Gets an Offensive Boost
The ongoing peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest in the world numbering 20,000 operators, is about to get an increase in its total number of soldiers. Two thousand South African, Malawian, and Tanzanian soldiers will be deploying this summer with a mandate to seek out and engage militias operating in the … Continue reading MONUSCO Gets an Offensive Boost
2013 Update: Kenya, TechChange and TC109
So 2013 is off to a roaring start. I just relocated to a new place in the Petworth neighborhood in D.C. and learned that all the staff I worked with at the U.S. Institute of Peace back in the day all live within 5 blocks of me. But the big things on the horizon are … Continue reading 2013 Update: Kenya, TechChange and TC109
Crowdsourcing 2013’s Content!
So with the new year starting Tuesday, I will be continuing to blog into 2013. The past year has mostly focused on my interest areas, political science, conflict and technology. But I've also mused on things that are not my "core expertise", such as gun control and domestic politics. Since I'll be finishing coursework this … Continue reading Crowdsourcing 2013’s Content!
Goma, M23, and the success of peacekeeping
The timing of reading Virginia Page Fortna’s Does Peacekeeping Work seemed appropriate as the M83 rebels in eastern Congo (DRC) marched in and took Goma, only to recently withdraw under the auspices of the MONUSCO force currently operating in the DRC. During this series of events I saw a tweet from Oxfam’s Policy and Practice … Continue reading Goma, M23, and the success of peacekeeping
A thought on Gaza and Twitter
If an airstrike happens in Gaza and no one live tweeted it, did it happen? That I’m even pondering this question demonstrates a shift in the evolution of information control in military operations. Perhaps the issue we’re facing is that in times past we needed a barrier between the publicly available information about combat operations … Continue reading A thought on Gaza and Twitter
Book review! “Crafting Peace” by Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie
Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie make an argument that the most robust form of negotiated peace involves a well-designed power or institution sharing agreement between the parties involved in a civil war. They make this argument in “Crafting Peace” using a statistical analysis of conflict cessation that includes variables covering duration, external intervention and measures … Continue reading Book review! “Crafting Peace” by Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie
Kenya Trip! Mixed method research on mobile phones for peace
Since the end of the fall semester of 2011, I have been working on a paper that integrates theories of ethnic cooperation and information asymmetries to understand why mobile phones can have a significant effect on conflict prevention. You can find the working paper here. I presented this paper in Australia at the University of … Continue reading Kenya Trip! Mixed method research on mobile phones for peace
Book Review! Scott Strauss’s “The Order of Genocide”
As time passes and we are able to collect more data on the Rwandan genocide, it is becoming increasingly important that we recognize not only the externalities that created socio-political pressure in Rwanda leading up to the genocide, but also systematically study why the perpetrators of violence made the decision to participate. Generally we see … Continue reading Book Review! Scott Strauss’s “The Order of Genocide”
The political economy of cynicism: What else could you do with $100,000 in Pakistan?
I'm generally not big on entering into the fray when it comes to the politics of the Muslim world, since I'm not an expert on the topic. But I am an expert on political economy and coalition behavior is contested spaces. The news of Pakistan's Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour's $100,000 reward to anyone who murders Nakoula … Continue reading The political economy of cynicism: What else could you do with $100,000 in Pakistan?
Charles P. Martin-Shields 