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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

Semester: 3/ 2005-06 Module Title: Dissertation Supervisor: G.S. Chesters

E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Submitted By: 02001208

No. of Words: 19, 317

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Graeme Chesters for all the helpful advice and direction given. Also thanks to Dr Peter Van Den Dungen, of Bradford Peace Studies Department for assisting in the section on Peace Education.To Sanna Heikkenen of Education For Peace-Balkans for providing vital information on her program.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

Abstract
Felicity Butt E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

Key Words: ICT, Peace Education, Online Communities, Post-Conflict, Development, Civil Society, ZaMir, WSIS, This dissertation is concerned with analysing the potential impact of ICTs on the provision of peace education and strengthening civil society post-conflict. This topic has been chosen because development has become increasingly intertwined with the digitalisation of the world. If development requires digitisation, and peace is thought to require development, then it is only logical to see how one, digitisation, can help achieve the other, peace. To achieve this analysis this dissertation will explore the impact of ICTs through three key areas; access, impact and cultural sensitivity. Access entails the physical possibility of using ICTs post-conflict, i.e. is there sufficient internet access? In addition access entails computer literacy, thus this research will explore if it is possible to teach the skills to utilise computers and other ICTs in post-conflict situations. In terms of impact this dissertation will analyse if ICTs are able to add value to more traditional means of strengthening civil society or providing peace education, succinctly do ICTs make any difference. Finally cultural sensitivity merely refers to whether ICTs are able to compliment traditional means of achieving these objectives. To exemplify, is content available in the relevant languages, are they able to disseminate relevant information, are they able to incorporate traditional rituals and ways of life and so forth. This dissertation does not intend to provide any firm conclusions, but instead to raise issues and stimulate further research.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ 5 1) Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1) Aim ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1.2) Context...................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3) ‘Potentials’ and ‘Pitfalls’ .......................................................................................................... 9 1.4) Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 12 1.5) Key Definitions ....................................................................................................................... 13 1.6) Summary: .............................................................................................................................. 14 2) Theory ............................................................................................................................................ 15 2.1) Post-Conflict Reconstruction/ Development: ....................................................................... 15 2.2) ICTs ......................................................................................................................................... 19 2.3) Peace Education .................................................................................................................... 20 2.4) Civil Society/ Online Communities ........................................................................................ 20 2.5) Summary ................................................................................................................................ 21 3) E-Learning: To Learn or not to Learn? ......................................................................................... 23 3.1) E-Learning: The Phenomenon ............................................................................................... 23 3.2) Peace education after the event........................................................................................... 24 3.3) Virtual Classrooms in no-mans land? ................................................................................... 27 3.4) To e-learn or not to e-learn? .................................................................................................. 30 4) Online communities: Virtual neighbours or Virtual strangers? .................................................. 33 4.1) Online Communities: The Phenomenon ............................................................................... 33 4.2) E- Neighbours: Virtual communities in action ...................................................................... 35 4.3) Face-less Units and Digital Ghost-towns .............................................................................. 39 4.4) Virtual neighbours or Virtual strangers? ............................................................................... 41 5) Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 43 5.1) Aim .......................................................................................................................................... 43 5.2) Electronically Aiding or Digitally deficient? ........................................................................... 43 5.2.1) Access/Viability: .............................................................................................................. 43 5.2.2) Impact .............................................................................................................................. 45 5.2.3) Cultural Sensitivity .......................................................................................................... 45 5.3) Prospects ................................................................................................................................ 45 5.4) Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 46 7) Bibliography................................................................................................................................... 48 7.1) Books ...................................................................................................................................... 48 7.2) Articles/Publications .............................................................................................................. 51 7.3) Websites ................................................................................................................................. 54

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

1) Introduction
1.1) Aim The aim of this research is to explore the potential of modern technology, specifically Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), in aiding post-conflict reconstruction/recovery, and more generally development. By ‘aiding’ it is proposed that ICTs can help; provide skills training, create a safe space for interaction and hopefully reconciliation, reconnect communities and serve as alternative classrooms. These activities will aid post-conflict reconstruction through providing the necessary skills to reconstruct society both physically and psychologically. However post-conflict reconstruction constitutes a huge range of activities, from construction of roads and buildings to the provision of food. The limits of this research, and ICTs themselves, necessitate a more narrow focus, therefore this research, will focus on the potential of ICTs to provide education and strengthen civil society. The decision to explore these specific areas was taken on; the strengths of ICTs; disseminating information and connecting individuals, and both areas; education and a strong civil society, import more generally to post-conflict reconstruction. Succinctly the areas were chosen based on what is needed in post-conflict scenarios and what ICTs can potentially deliver. Assessing the impact of modern technology is pertinent given the recent World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) (Tunis, 2005) which emphasised the potential use of ICTs in aiding development, and more precisely the millennium development goals1, of which one is concentrated on the provision of basic education for all. In addition the summit began to address the role of the information society in post conflict reconstruction, through for example disseminating information on reforms and allowing a space to deal with conflict ‘creatively’2. Focusing on education and civil society through ICTs is thus viable, as noted formerly, given the roles and capacities envisioned for ICTs by leading experts and practitioners in the field, precisely ICTs are concerned with disseminating knowledge through online information or interaction. This author contends that whilst both concepts; modern technology and a strengthened/ educated society, are widely recognised as important to peace and development, the relationship between the two, has not been sufficiently explored. Thus this research is essential in seeking to extend the available research to explore more directly the potential and actual relationship between the two fields; post conflict situations (specifically in education and civil society fields) and ICTs. It is felt that this connection needs to be explored because it is widely accepted that contemporary conflict predominates in the under-developed regions of the world. If conflict and under-development are linked, and subsequently ICTs are proposed as the solution to underdevelopment, for example the WSIS process began as ICT for Development (ICT4D)3. It is therefore viable to explore the role of ICTs in the post-conflict scenario, typically the stage before transition to a development scenario. To summarise the separate uses of ICTs, at different stages, have been widely recognised, this research aims to provide the necessary linkage between these stages.
UN ICT Task Force (2005) ‘Information and Communications Technology for Peace: The Role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovery from conflict’. UN: New York 2 UN ICT Task Force (2005) ‘Information and Communications Technology for Peace: The Role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovery from conflict’. UN: New York 3 http://www.ict-4d.org/
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. In order to actualise this research potentialities and possibilities will be illustrated where possible with examples from the field, such as the ZaMir online community and its impact on relations in post-conflict Bosnia, to the work of Dot..Org in the Congo, training teachers via digital video4, in Macedonia and Haiti training people via radio broadcasts The main reason behind the undertaking of this research is to explore what the researcher determines to be an important gap in contemporary research. A gap between an increasing number of ICT based schemes being implemented, and an almost non-existent field of research. This research is imperative to ascertain whether and which ICT based schemes have the potential to aid post-conflict development. It is hoped that this research may stimulate further research and pilot schemes in the area of ICTs, Post-Conflict Recovery, Education and strengthening civil society. 1.2) Context The map below shows the occurrence, distribution and intensity of conflicts since 1946 in comparison to the level of development:

This map shows a correlation between low levels of development, 0.275-0.577 and frequency of conflict, the majority of conflicts occur in the least developed areas, although of course there are exceptions in Europe, North America and South America. Compared to the map below, which shows areas at risk of conflict in the future (next 4 years at time of writing), it seems that under-developed regions are likely to suffer the scourge of conflict more frequently than their developed neighbours.

http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/activities/activitydetails.php?activity_id=92 DOT-COM Activity: DR Congo - Improving Basic Education, Especially for Girls in Targeted Areas (aka SIEEQ)
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

These maps serve to illustrate part of the motivation behind this research. Underdevelopment has long been determined as an attributing factor to conflict, this is evident in Lederach’s (1997) definition of Positive Peace. Positive Peace defined as not only the absence of violent conflict but also the satisfaction of human needs through equality of distribution and rights. Therefore a connection is made between underdevelopment and conflict. In conjunction with this in 1998 the World Summit of the Information Society formally began5, these summits, and the process behind them, were intended to explore how the digital divide attributed to underdevelopment. Precisely how lack of access to modern technology entailed the underdeveloped countries remaining in their disadvantaged situation. The rise of the economic tigers of South East Asia (Singapore???) through use of modern technology seemed to add empirical evidence to this theory. Therefore the context of this research is the growing belief that there is a connection between lack of ICTs, underdevelopment and conflict:

Conflict

Lack of ICTS

Under development

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2005) ‘Moving from the Past into the Future’. UN ICT Task Force: New York. p 2
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

1.3) ‘Potentials’ and ‘Pitfalls’

Given the unexplored nature of ICTs, particularly in the specific context of post-conflict scenarios, this research will not attempt to put forward a hypothesis, arguing that to do so would be an exercise in futility. Precisely the potentials and pitfalls of ICTs are, as yet, ‘unknown’, particularly in terms of their development or peacebuilding impact. Subsequently it proves difficult to ascertain whether any given result is attributable to ICTs or to other factors. This prohibits making a hypothesis because any hypothesis would lack supporting evidence, through the lack of specific ICT related indicators, given their currently limited use in the development and peace building fields. To summarise we cannot hypothesise about the impact of ICTs because they have only been put into practice in a limited number of instances. However whilst there is a limited amount of empirical evidence concerning the impact of ICTs in peacebuilding and development scenarios there is a wealth of literature about the ‘potentials’ and ‘pitfalls’ of ICTs in general. These will be explored here to provide a basis on which to analyse their role in peace education and strengthening civil society. For example ICTs are thought to allow more flexibility, with the advent of mobile networks and wireless connections one can work from anywhere, this shows that ICTs have the potential to change the way we think about the classroom, for example children may be able to learn from their homes or refugee camps rather than walk great distances to the nearest school. ‘Potentials’ There are a number of attributes associated with ICTs:  Flexibility As eluded to in the example used above ICTs are thought to bring a greater flexibility to everyday activities, one can shop, work and learn from the comfort of one’s own home. This is an attribute especially important to the issues explored in this research because it may enable education to begin immediately, rather than being dependent on the construction of school buildings. Although of course ICTs have their own logistical drawbacks in that sufficient electricity and communications infrastructure has to be in place in order for them to function. Yet experience has shown that it is possible to build short term connections, for example Ericsson has an emergency communications team that helps get people online in an emergency, it was deployed in Aceh following the Boxing day Tsunami. Greater access One potential advocated is that ICTs could offer greater access to more information. In terms of providing more information, the internet is an example of how people can now access, almost instantaneously information from the other side of the world. In terms of greater access ICTs could remove the need to travel to another location in order to learn or work, or on the contrary mobile technology allows the work place to move more easily. Whilst this concept may just be a luxury in the developed world, in the developing world it may be more essential. For example in a war zone mobility is restricted, often prohibiting people from going to work or school, this could be circumvented by bringing the work to the people. Dual Purpose





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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. One argument made for the inculsion of ICT elements in all areas of society is that ICT skills are thought to be at once something to allow individual development but also societal development. To explain the skills that are required to write and send a personal email, budget ones own finances, search online and so forth, are also needed in the workplace. Thus ICT skills aid education as well as increasingly employability.  Adaptable This refers to the idea that ICTs are often able to transform to fit the purpose set them. For example one can use a website to provide some of the essential roles of the state, such as informing the populace about new policies, registering to vote, registering with doctors, and paying taxes amongst other activities, whilst the same structure can be used to communicate with people on the other side of the world, share experiences and gain an education. Additionallu ICT hardware can be chosen to suit the situation, for example VSAT in hilly areas where wireless connection would be made impossible by the obstruction of the hills. Cost Effective ICTs are thought of as expensive, and the initial costs may indeed be high, but prices are continually reducing, with the cost of installing fibre optic wires dropping from $1000 per km to $1006. Indeed the United Nations Information Technology Task Force publication ‘Open Access Africa’ claims that internet access can be made available for the entire continent for a mere $900 million, which is an approximate cost of $1 per person. This is calculating for a fibre optic network in which wires last around 10 years and much of the internet access can then be made free. Thus although initial costs are high the overall savings make ICTs very cost effective. Another reason that ICTs are cost-effective are the possible returns for money invested, for example the DOT-Org program in the Republic of Kyrgyz was able to become so cost-effective, by charging customers for info-tainment (games and other forms of entertainment available online) services, and coupling e-centers with commercial internet cafes that there was enough initial budget remaining to open 3 more centres. As Mansell and When inform us; ‘although the costs of using ICTs…are high, the costs of not doing so are likely to be much higher’7. Professor J. Sachs adds that ‘the dividing line between north and south is not just the poverty line but the fibre optic and high speed digital line’8, indicating that lack of ICTs could cost countries more, as the world, and its economy, becomes more and more digitised. ‘Pitfalls’ There are consequently a number of pitfalls associated with the advent of ICTs:  High initial costs In the section on ‘potentials’ of ICTs the idea that ICTs initially cost a lot was highlighted. This point is particularly pertinent given the direction of this research. With the focus



Danofsky, S. (2005) ‘Open Access for Africa: Challenges, Recommendations and Examples’. UN Information and Communications Technology Task Force 7 Mansell, R. & Wehn, U. (1998) ‘Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable development’. The United Nations, Oxford University Press: Oxford
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World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2005) ‘Moving from the Past into the Future’. UN ICT Task Force: New York
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. being on post-conflict scenarios, scenarios in which most infrastructure has been destroyed, economies are weak and funds scare, the high start-up costs of ICTs become major obstacles. $1 per person may not seem a large figure, but when we consider that 3 Billion people in the world, that is around 50% of the world’s population live on less than $1 a day (see map below), the figure starts to become more of a barrier.



Derogative effect on human relations/ Cultures It has been argued that whilst the internet, and mobile phones may allow us to have a greater amount of contact with a wider audience, the manner of contact has a pejorative effect on ‘real’ human relations. ‘Real’ human relations defined as face-to-face contact with other human beings. Surveys undertaken by Carnegie Mellon University suggested that increased use of ICTs, in this instance the internet, led to a marked decrease in ‘social involvement’, this was measured by the amount of person-to-person communication with family, friends and local community members users of the internet had. This could pose a problem for whole cultures and ways of life, which are based on strong human interaction. Dominance by a few/ Western Another pitfall that has more recently come to the fore is that of regulation and ownership of the the new technologies. The internet is once again at the centre of this debate, but the concept also affects other technologies. The idea is about who controls the content and uses of these technologies. At present more than 96% of internet hosts are located in high income countries9, indeed ‘there are more internet hosts in New York



Danofsky, S. (2005) ‘Open Access for Africa: Challenges, Recommendations and Examples’. UN Information and Communications Technology Task Force. p.32
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. City than on the entire continent of Africa’10. Concurrently around 78%11 of content is in English. All this implies that introducing ICTs could be observed as a neo-colonialism as people in the developing world are not involved in the design or control of these new technologies. This could also imply that these technologies may not be suited to the different cultures that exist, as it has been almost solely designed in one form of culture, that of the western world.  Limited Access: Skills and Physical When exploring the potentials of ICTs it was suggested that ICTs can improve access to information, yet access can also be a pitfall with concern to ICTs. This is because the costs of acquiring the necessary equipment may prohibit some people from being able to gain access. Access is also based on the requisite skills which can also be lacking, for example in Mozambique there are only 30-40 ICT Graduates a year, compared to more than 8000 in the UK. Meaning that there are few people equipped with the skills to use or train others to use the new technology. Thus a pitfall of ICTs is that people may not be able to access them.

To summarise it is evident that there are ‘two-sides of the coin’ to almost every element of ICTs, they can potentially increase contact between people, yet at the same time decrease the amount of face-to-face interaction, they are cost effective yet with prohibitive initial costs. Yet this brief look at the more general potentials and pitfalls has highlighted three main areas that need to be addressed in this analysis: 1. Access/Viability 2. Impact 3. Cultural Sensitivity Point 1 refers to the physical costs and logistics as well as more skills based issues such as acquiring the skills to use the technology and design local software, hardware and content. Point 2 refers to the desired impact of ICTs, whether they have a positive effect on the area in which they are employed, for example are they able to improve human relations or not. Finally Point 3 refers to whether ICTs are able to adapt to fit local requirements or not. All three points are vital to determining whether ICTs have the potential to aid in post-conflict development.

1.4) Methodology In order to establish a more concrete set of potentials and pitfalls for ICT based solutions this research will take the two key areas and explore firstly their traditional formats.By traditional it is meant those schemes that do not use ICT. This exploration will highlight the key requirements of either a peace education scheme or an initiative to strengthen civil society. This exploration will provide some indication of what roles the ICT must fulfil. To exemplify, if peace education schemes require that pupils are equipped with basic literacy skills, then an ICT based scheme must be able to teach pupils basic literacy. Secondly each section will explore the application of ICT based schemes to provide empirical evidence of the potentials and pitfalls of ICT based solutions in each situation. This is essential to aid this research to move beyond abstract ideas of the potential of ICTs. This

Danofsky, S. (2005) ‘Open Access for Africa: Challenges, Recommendations and Examples’. UN Information and Communications Technology Task Force. p.32 11 http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info/internet.html
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. section may also highlight the value that ICT based solutions can add, by this it is meant what else ICTs can offer a peace education/ civil society program. This methodology has been adopted because of the lack of ICT based schemes in practice. Limited information and relative newness entails that this research cannot rely on an analysis of ICT based schemes to determine the potential of ICTs. One has to look at what ICT based solutions may be replacing and how they compare cost and impact wise to the former solutions. 1.5) Key Definitions This research is concerned with addressing, evaluating and examining the interactions and relations between a number of concepts, precisely; ICTs, Post-Conflict situations, peace education and civil society. It is thus pertinent in this introductory phase to outline what is meant by these terms in relation to this research: ICT(s) Information Communication Technologies is a term used to describe devices which enable communications, such as Radio, Television, Mobile/ Landline Phones, Computers and the Internet (whether by satellite, fibre optic, or telephone lines). In contemporary literature ICTs are often known more for the communications and information exchange they allow then the specific technology that is being employed, this has become known as ICT for development. This research is concerned with the latter idea, thus ICTs will be explored more in their impact then for their substance in the course of this paper. Post-Conflict Situation A post-conflict situation is the period directly after the cessation of violent conflict. There is some contention as to whether the signing of an official peace agreement is required to define a situation as post-conflict or it merely begins when the shooting stops, in either scenario the post-conflict situation requires the end of widespread physical violence. This period is also characterised by moves to re-build or re-form society, both physically and psychologically. This entails such actions as holding democratic elections, reforming police and army forces, rebuilding roads, hospitals and schools, engaging communities in reconciliation whether through judicial methods, truth commissions, discussions or more traditional means, and so forth. Peace Education Education in defined as: ‘The systematic instruction, schooling or training given to the young in preparation for the work of life’12 or ‘To train, discipline (a person, a class of persons, a particular mental or physical faculty or organ), so as to develop some special aptitude, taste, or disposition’13. Therefore Peace education is concerned with training, schooling and instructing people, especially young people, in the necessary skills to avoid or resolve conflict. This is achieved through the provision of knowledge about the causes and obstacles to conflict and peace, teaching mediation and conflict management skills and attempting to encourage creative solutions and thinking around the concept of peace. Peace in terms of peace education is normally defined in the broader sense of ‘Positive peace’, thus not only concerned with the absence of physical violence (‘Negative Peace’) but the absence of what Galtung14 termed structural violence. Structural violence entails phenomenon such as unfair access to food, employment, healthcare and so forth, which can cause deaths in a similar manner to physical fighting.
Oxford English Dictionary Oxford English Dictionary 14 Galtung, J. 1969. "Violence, Peace and Peace Research". Journal of Peace Research, Vol.6 No.3, 1969, pp 167-191.
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. (Strong) Civil Society Civil Society refers to the voluntary formation of a community or communities by citizens of a state. This ‘society’ is effectively separate from the insitutions of the state although as Almond15 and Verba16 have highlighted many of the ‘communities’ that make up civil society have an overtly political element, inspiring a more active and informed citizenry. This is done through raising awareness about government decisions that affect the interests of that particular group and inciting active participation in support or opposition of the said policies. Civil society thus consists of charities, non-governmental organisations, faith/gender/employment based groups, advocacy groups and so forth, who join together out of shared interests and values. These shared interests and values lead these groups to become informed about the policies of government, to particpate in politics to inform future policies and place pressure on state institutions to make changes. These three elements are what constitute a ‘strong’ civil society, precisely a strong civil society is one that actively participates in their countries politics.

1.6) Summary: This introduction has outlined the reasons behind conducting this research, the aim of this research and some of the key areas to be addressed through this research: access/viability, impact and cultural sensitivity. The following sections will analyse the impact and potentials of ICT based peace education and online communities, seeking to establish the potentials and pitfalls of using ICTs in each area, and thereby stimulate further research into the role of ICTs in post-conflict scenarios. As stated priorly this research will not aim to draw any conclusions about whether ICT based solutions should be rejected or selected but instead to raise questions and perhaps establish indicators by which further research can draw these conclusions.

15Almond,

G.A. & Verba, S. (1989) ‘The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations’ Sage Publications: Newbury Park, California 16 Almond, G.A. & Verba, S. (1989) ‘The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations ’ Sage Publications: Newbury Park, California

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

2) Theory
As indicated in the prior section this research will deal with multiple concepts, namely: Post-Conflict reconstruction, ICTs, Peace Education and Civil Society. Each of these concepts is also subject to numerous definitions and understandings, depending on the ‘lens’17 used by the researcher. To exemplify, for some post-conflict reconstruction can begin only upon the signing of a peace agreement, whilst others understand reconstruction to indicate the beginning of a desire to transform conflictual relationships, irrespective of a formal peace agreement, and still others determine post-conflict to be the point at which reconstruction and reconciliation can take place. It is therefore pertinent to indicate the ‘lenses’ used by this researcher in understanding and interpreting the terms used. Advising the reader of the standpoint and perception of the researcher allows for better comprehension and engagement as the reader understands the motivation of the researcher. Given the multitude of possible lenses for each concept, in addition to the research question as a whole, this section has been divided thematically rather then theoretically. For each theme key thinkers and theories will be highlighted and related to the research question, in order to indicate their relevance and impact. 2.1) Post-Conflict Reconstruction/ Development: The introduction has already highlighted that there are a number of definitions and theories concerning what constitutes post-conflict reconstruction. In terms of this research question the most relevant theorists are Johan Galtung (1996) and John Paul Lederach (1997). These conceptions of post-conflict reconstructions are not concerned with defining when postconflict begins or its key characteristics, but more with what is required in these periods to bring about sustainable and positive peace. Thus perhaps it would be interesting to begin with a brief survey of the main characteristics and goals associated with the post conflict reconstruction: The need for security Conflict, particular modern conflict which targets civilians, has at its core a desire to install instability and insecurity, through terror tactics such as mass rapes, killings and forced migrations. In order to thus transform a conflict situation into a peace situation one must create physical and psychological security for the general populace. This is stereotypically achieved through actions such as; arrests and trials, reform of police and armed forces, truth commissions and international presence The need to de-mobilise, disarm and reintegrate former combatants (DDR) It has been widely recognised that the lack of attention to former combatants is often the cause of a reversion to violence. To explain, former combatants who are deficient of employment, food, shelter and other basic needs will return to the only means of survival they know, violent conflict. DDR has thus become a vital element of post-conflict provision. The need to rebuild infrastructure

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‘Lens’ is a term used by social scientists to denote the maner in which a researcher understands a concept or the world around them. Thus for example if one adopts a realist ‘lens’ one understands the world in terms of power politics. They are a useful tool to aid the reader in understanding the standpoint of the researcher.
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. The longevity and ferocity of most modern conflict entails that entire countries are devastated, with roads, schools, hospitals, courts, government buildings, water supplies and so forth destroyed. This destruction often means that the governance and economy of the country in question is severely hindered. It is therefore vital to begin immediate reconstruction of basic infrastruture, to allow the government and economy to begin functioning again, as well as to ease the running of everyday life. The need to rebuild a local economy Mary Kaldor18 argues that the basis of modern conflict is economic, to expand that conflict has ironically for many actors become a means of ‘making a living’. With conflict so evidently fuelled by a black market economy, whether that be drugs, diamonds, oil, or logging, it is necessary for a country emerging from conflict to begin to provide an alternative means of employment. The need to install democracy, including its accompanying institutions The Liberal democratic peace theory offers one reason why installing democracy is a necessity post-conflict, i.e. democracies supposedly do not fight wars. Additionally democracy allows for the people to have a modicum of control over the ruling elite, making it more difficult for them to resort to violence in the future. Installing democracy is thus important to avoid future conflict through providing a check on power, a lack of desire and a means by which peoples needs can be known and addressed. The need to reconciliate conflicting parties The post-conflict situation is very fragile, and as detailed above is at high-risk of a reversion to violence from any number of factors, continued grievances and tensions between conflicting parties is evidently one such factor. It is therefore important to encourage reconciliation between victims, perpetrators and others to give a greater stability to the peace process The need to strengthen civil society It has already been noted that modern war targets civilians, and thereby societies, often causing it to fracture, as neighbours become enemies and large amounts of society are forced to migrate. It has also been mentioned that the populace are needed to check the powers of the government. A strong civil society thus serves to both re-connect society and provide pressure on government to fulfil its promises. The need to provide conflict management/ prevention skills These skills are a requirement because of the fragility of peace, it has already been cited in earlier needs the ease with which a situation can revert to violence, through lack of resources, lack of employment, lack of voice and so forth. However by engaging in the provision of conflict management/ prevention skills one is able to provide alternative means of resolving conflicts, thereby reducing the fragility of peace. The need for resources, including food, shelter, education, health. Perhaps the most critical provision of the post-conflict period, resources are needed to provide for basic needs whilst the country begins to find its feet.

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Evidently the concentration in the research question on building a strong civil society and providing peace education, and thus conflict management/ prevention skills relates to the key requirements of a post-conflict development. Yet these key requirements do not account for all the facets of the post-conflict reconstruction, therefore this section will now turn to the work of key theorists in the area to offer a more comprehensive understanding of post-conflict reconstruction.
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Kaldor, M. (1999) ‘New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era’. Polity Press: Cambridge

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Lederach (1997) conceives of post-conflict reconstruction as a long-term process, with the ‘goal of moving a given population from a condition of extreme vulnerability and dependency to one of self-sufficiency and well-being’19. Lederach (1997), reasons that the reconstruction process must be long-term, because it must be relative to the conflict process. To explain it can take many years to build up enough hatred and mistrust to result in violence, and thus concurrently it can take an equal number of years to build sufficient trust and strong relationships to aid reconstruction. Imbedded in this idea is also the import of the local culture and population to the success of any reconstruction initiative. Indeed Lederach (1997) describes the local populace as ‘the greatest resource for sustaining peace in the long term’20. This idea is pictified by the placement of the general population at the base of Lederach’s triangle of ‘actors and approaches to peacebuilding’21:

High level leaders

Mid-level/ Community Leaders

General Populace (Grassroots)

However he recognises that society consists of multiple layers and thus forsees that any initiative should be both horizontal and vertical (as shown by the arrows above), building bridges and relationships between all people involved, and lead by the mid-level leaders who have greatest access to actors at all levels of Lederach’s triangle. Therefore for Lederach the key components of post-conflict reconstruction are that it is long-term in outlook and ensures the active and committed participation of the local population and leaders. Lederach (1997) even cautions that reconstruction will not succeed unless initiated by the local populace. In short for Lederach reconstruction is an internal process of relationship building that should only receive external support at the request of the local population. Whilst Lederach’s (1997) theory informs the approach of this researcher, precisely his focus on the internal nature of reconstruction is reflective of the concentration on civil society and peace education. To clarify, both areas; education and a strong civil society, are concerned with strengthening the local capacity and skills in order to allow for the enactment of internal transformation. Thus this researcher will be taking a similar stance to Lederach (1997) through observing how ICTs can strengthen local rather then external peacebuilding capacity, believing that this offers a more sustainable and rooted solution. However whilst this constitutes a
Lederach, J.P.(1997) ‘Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in divided Societies’. United States Institute of Peace: Washington. p. 75 20 Lederach, J.P.(1997) ‘Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in divided Societies’. United States Institute of Peace: Washington. p. 94 21 Lederach, J.P.(1997) ‘Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in divided Societies’. United States Institute of Peace: Washington. p.39
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. sensitive approach it does not provide any practical advice as to how best to achieve this internal transformation, nor does it deal with the possibility that internal initiatives may not be forthcoming. To challenge Lederach’s (1997) proposal, are conflicts merely meant to be ignored by external actors until the internal actors decide to cease the violence? Whilst a concentration on internal impetus is commendable, situations may warrant external encouragement and creativity in order to stimulate a break-out of the vicious cycles of conflict. In addition Lederach (1997) does not deal with the role of modern technology in his theory of post-conflict reconstruction, although as stated earlier he offers very little in terms of practical plans, due to the emphasis on locally spawned initiatives. Finally information communications technologies have been tied to the field of development studies, in terms of their capacity to modernise society, however Lederach (1997) gives little attention to the idea of development, preferring to concentrate on the more psychological components of reconstruction. Galtung (1996) by contrast does deal with the link between post-conflict reconstruction and development. He proposes that development, in a holistic sense, which entails human, cultural and social, in addition to economic development, is a major part of peace studies, and thereby Peace. He explores the many theories of development, including that of modernisation which proposes that for the developing world to develop they must follow the same process as the developed world. This theory is often tied to the idea of ICTs, especially considering the progress made by the south-east Asian ‘Tigers’ upon adopting these technologies, and their widespread usage in the developed world. However Galtung (1996) concludes that development in its many formats should just be considered as the means by which human needs are met and suffering reduced. This links to Burton’s human needs theory and that of human rights, both of which are relevant to this research in that they highlight the notion that ICTs can help fulfil human needs. In terms of human rights it has been advocated that communication should become a basic human right in the contemporary world, this is based on the idea that the human being is a social animal who requires interaction to develop. To return to the ideas propagated by Galtung (1996), ideas that are imbedded in the idea already highlighted, that peacebuilding includes development in the sense that development reduces suffering and increases the capacity of people to fulfil their basic needs. To clarify ‘Peace is the condition in space for nonviolent development’22 Galtung (1996) uses a simple formula to think about the process towards peace, ‘Peace= direct peace+ structural peace+ cultural peace’23. This correlates with the ideas of Lederach (1997) in that it stresses the importance of allowing the individual to develop, although is concentrated more on removing external obstacles, whilst Lederach (1997) concentrated on the internal obstacles. Again Galtung (1996) does not refer to the possible impact of ICTs in the area of post-conflict reconstruction, indeed like Lederach (1997) he offers no concrete proposal just a structure by which to examine and understand the situation. To summarise post-conflict reconstruction is understood to mean an internal process of development and relationship building, and an external process of removing obstacles to equality and fair distribution of resources. It is this understanding that informs the choice of civil society and peace education as areas of study, and additionally ICTs as the tool of choice to bridge divides and aid communication which is vital to relationship building.

Galtung, J. (1996) ‘Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilisation’. Sage Publications Ltd: London. p. 223 23 Galtung, J. (1996) ‘Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilisation’.Sage Publications Ltd: London. p. 265
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. 2.2) ICTs

A definition of ICTs was given in the introduction, thus what is expected to be covered here is some theories as the the possible impacts and roles of ICTs in society. Manuel Castells triology on the Information Society offers the most comprehensive exploration to date of the impact of modern technology on society. Castells proposes that information technology is undermining the power of the state, which with the advent of ICTs is at once too small and too big24, meaning that it is not able to sufficiently influence world trends to the advantage of its citizens or deal directly with the needs of the individual citizen. Whilst the reduction of state power is not entirely negative, thus for example in China the internet is forcing the government to allow more freedoms, as access to external sources of information and support is more readily available. The places to which this loss of power is frequently diffused may however prove to be very negative. To be more precise Castells explains the role of ICTs in strengthening the power and influence of specific interest groups, thus for example it has been used by Aum Shinrikyo (Japanese group responsible for chemical weapon attack on Tokyo underground) and Al-Quaeda amongst others. Yet at the same time ICTs have allowed the previously powerless to gain power, Castells cites the success of the Zapatistas in Mexico as evidence of this phenonmenon. Through the use of ICTs the Zapatistas were able to garner support and oppose the government, eventually succeeding, a campaign that may not have worked without the capacity to reach a wider community. To summarise the ideas of Castells, one impact of ICTs is the diffusion of power from traditonal power centres, such as the state and government to those who were previously powerless and voiceless, such as minority groups, small interest groups and the individual. Thereby providing the formerly disenfranchised with means to garner support and attract attention to previously ignored issues and areas. However it is important to note that the use of ICTs is dependent upon physical access and the requiste technical skills, both of which are by no means universal. This entails that not all the world’s disenfranchised are able to access this new resource and thus traditional power centres continure to maintain their position in many places. Indeed those with the most access and skills, are located in the developed world, an area that already holds a large proportion of political, cultural and economic power. In conclusion Castells theory raises questions about the extent of impact that can be had by ICTs. Community Informatics is another theory concerning the role of ICTs in contemporary society. It entails the encouragement of active participation of beneficiaries not only through use of new technologies but additionally in the content and design of said technologies. The theory looks at ICTs as a cyclical process in which knowledge is generated by and redistributed to the community in question. In short community informatics is concerned with technologies for the community, by the community. This stands in contrary to more traditional ideas such as technological determinism, in which it was proposed that technologies themselves drive progress not the designers and consumers. This researcher relates more to the former idea that ICTs and their impact are determined by the designers and users. Incidently this links to Lederach (1997) and Galtung’s (1996) theory of post-conflict reconstruction in that the people are the central driving force in any peaceful transformation. Community Informatics also implies that ICTs are flexible and adaptable enough to alter to fit a given scenario. To summarise the theoretical setting of ICTs in this research one can say that ICTs are seen as a tool to empower the otherwise powerless, a means of transforming relationships and
24

Castells, M. (1997) ‘The Power of Identity’. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford. p. 273

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. building bridges between people. However these technologies must be designed, used and perhaps it is even pertinent to say desired by the community in question in order that they are at their most effective. Afterall ‘knowledge principally resides in people rather than ICTs’25

2.3) Peace Education Galtung (1996) defines learning as ‘a new modification of attitude and/or behaviour in the widest possible sense’26. Whilst this researcher does not necessarily agree that Education is something entirely separate to learning, precisely education is the schooling system through which learning should take place, the idea that the whole process is about transformation of relationships and situations is concurrent with the views of this researcher. This is due to the definition that both Galtung (1996) and Lederach (1997) offer concerning post-conflict development, precisely, that the repair of human relationships and trust is deemed as imperative to development and reconstruction. Peace education has as its core the prevention of violent conflict, through teaching the factors that lead to escalation of violence and those which help to reduce its occurrence. Consequently if sustainable peace is thought to arise from improved human relations and understandings then an education which aims to modify ‘attitudes and/or behaviour’ is geared towards creating a sustainable peace. Friere (1972) offers another interesting view on education, having criticised the current system of education, as equivalent to banking, in his work, ‘Pedagogy of the oppressed’. Referring here to the manner in which often pupils are told information by teachers and textbooks and then proceed to regurgitate this information on demand as proof that they are educated. Succinctly the teacher deposits his/her information in the pupil and the pupil makes withdrawals when prompted to. Friere (1972) instead offers the example of dialogic teaching. To explain Friere (1972) proposed that teaching should be a two-way process, in which pupil and teacher are at once both teaching and learning. A pupil is thus not only taught or told but also learns, making the process much more effective and sustainable, as the pupil knows for themselves rather than having been told by someone else. This idea also concurs with the idea of community informatics, in that those that use the technology should also play a role in designing the technology. To summarise Peace education is concerned with transforming relationships, not through telling people what to do but by those people affected learning for themselves. This idea of education also allows for a large degree of local ownership and initiation, something that Lederach (1997) and Galtung (1996) have argued is essential for a successful reconstruction/development program. 2.4) Civil Society/ Online Communities

It has already been shown that active participation of individuals is a central requirement for many of the concepts covered in this research: people are needed to make peace, people are needed to use and design ICTs and finally they are needed to take an active role in learning and teaching. Therefore the import and role of civil society seems apparent.
Mansell, R. & Wehn, U. (1998) ‘Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable development’. The United Nations, Oxford University Press: Oxford
25

Galtung, J. (Unknown) ‘Some Strategies for Reducing Educational Inequalities’. Goals, Processes and Indicators of Development, United Nations University (UNU), Paper No. 83. p. 1
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Civil society is needed to encourage this active participation and also bridge the gaps between people caused by conflict. The latter is achieved due to the shared goal or purpose which defines a civil society, to be precise a civil society is defined as a group of individuals working together towards a shared goal. Therefore in relation to post-conflict reconstruction civil society is thought to be an essential element driving any progress because it in a sense forces individuals to work together. This unity and community feeling is one of the essential elements of peace. Castells27 believes that online communities offer the same source of unity and togetherness by allowing people of similar interests and needs to meet and communicate with one another, sharing information, learning and bonding in a safe and neutral environment. Indeed there are examples of whole cities going online, where shops, government agencies and so forth are all available on one website28. Although at the same time those that control content online are also gaining control of opinions, in the same manner as states used traditional methods like newspapers, radio and television broadcasts to control the information their citizens had available to them. In some senses Castells (1997) argues that this can be more dangerous via the internet when one is unaware who is controlling what information is available and what is not. Thus whilst online communities can strengthen the bonds between people there is little control over what they are bonding over, Castells offers the example of Aum Shinrikyo to illustrate this point. Aum Shinrikyo were able to use the internet to recruit new members and spread propaganda. To summarise civil society is about building strong connections between people, based on achieving a shared goal or objective. This therefore connects with the idea that whole communities of people should work together to bring about peace, as propagated by Lederach and Galtung. Indeed Lederach shows the essentiality of civil society by its position in his triangle of actors (see above diagram), it is the bottom area, thus the stability and majority of the actors involved.

2.5) Summary To recapitulate the main concepts informing this research are those which emphasise participation and locally based and initiated transformation. These ideas can be seen in all of the above theories concerning the major topic of this research, but especially in the ideas of Lederach (1997) and Galtung (1996). They are also reflective of the potentialities of ICTs, to be more exact ICTs, are able to connect and empower ordinary people, giving them the capacity to be both involved and informed about major decisions and so forth. Locally owned and initiated schemes are also thought to be more sustainable and transforming, as the people party to the conflict are made directly responsible to the peace. Thus the theory behind this research is that if ICTs are to have an impact on the provision of peace education and strengthening civil society post-conflict then they must be interactive, stimulating, appealing and capable of connecting people. In short they must allow people to work together to rebuild relationships, learn the skills to prevent future conflict and make decisions about how to rebuild and develop their society. There are therefore three key areas in which to examine the potential of ICT based solutions:
Castells, M. (1997) ‘The Power of Identity’. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford. Tsagarousianou, R et al. (1998) ‘Cyberdemocracy: Technology, cities and civic networks’. Routledge: London
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. 1. Access/Viability 2. Impact 3. Cultural Sensitivity However a fourth idea of ‘involvement’ has been introduced in the theories explored above, especially those of Lederach (1997) and Galtung (1996) although implicit in the ideas of Castells and Sen. Yet involvement or participation is incorporated and essential to the three ideas already outlined as key to a positive potential impact: access/viability, impact and cultural sensitivity. The former because people cannot be involved, or participate, unless they are able to access the technology. For the solution to have an impact it must affect the lives of those participating, succinctly they have to be involved for the solution to have an impact. Finally the latter because cultural sensitivity can only arise through local people being actively involved in the design and implementation of the solution.

Access/ Viability

Involvement/ Participation Cultural Sensitivity

Impact

The following sections will look at the application of ICTs in the field of peace education and strengthening civil society, using this need for a locally owned, initiated and desired scheme to evaluate the impact and potentials of ICTs in both areas.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

3) E-Learning: To Learn or not to Learn?
3.1) E-Learning: The Phenomenon The introduction and theoretical setting have provided a basic definition of peace education. To recount; peace education is an education to provide the necessary knowledge and skills to empower people to transform or prevent conflictual behaviour and situations. Peace education also enables conflict resolution to occur at all levels of society, including the grassroots level, and therefore, allegedly, provides for a more sustainable peace. To clarify, it is felt that as conflict is made in the minds of men it is here that it must be unmade. There is no strict peace education curriculum, current schemes range from those providing high-level mediation skills to those interested in providing basic literacy and numeracy skills. The latter example relating to Galtung’s (1996) idea of ‘positive peace’, in which structural inequalities, such as differing levels of education, can lead to conflict through activities such as discrimination or unequal distribution of resources of the basis of these differences in education. Yet all schemes have in common the intention to provide the necessary skills and knowledge to prevent and transform conflict situations, whether through providing mediation skills or the skills to make a society more equal. Consequently this analysis will not attempt to extrapolate a strict ICT based Peace Education curriculum but instead analyse the more general implications of using ICTs in Peace education. To expand, this analysis will be concerned with issues such as; whether ICTs can improve access to education, whether they can improve the quality of education available, whether they can cut the costs of providing universal education and so forth. However before it is possible to analyse the potential of ICTs to impact upon the provision of peace education in a post-conflict situation, it is pertinent to define and explain what is meant by ICT based learning or E-Learning. This exercise will also serve to provide further indication of the potentials and pitfalls foreseen for ICT based education, thereby aiding the analysis. To exemplify, it is assumed with the advent of E-learning that logistical obstacles to gaining an education, such as distance from school, the need to work during ‘school hours’ and the enforcement of restricted movements, are removed, as the ‘School’ can now come to the pupil. By this it is meant that if one has a computer, the knowledge to use it, and internet access or even the use of CD-Roms one can learn from one’s own home to one’s own timetable. Yet in a post-conflict situation, is there universal home access to the internet or even computers? Are the requisite skills available to allow people to work at home alone without one-to-one instruction? To summarise this example shows that there are potentials and pitfalls to the use of ICT based education. E-learning is simply the use of electronic equipment to aid in the learning process, therefore it does not necessitate the use of computers. However, it has become synonymous with such concepts as online-learning and distance learning. E-Learning or ICT based education will be used, rather than online learning, specifically because these terms extends beyond the ideas encompassed in the terms online learning and distance learning, to cover all aspects of electronically assisted education. Therefore e-learning can entail education programs assisted by the use of television, radio, internet, computers, calculators, projectors, video and so forth. Whilst this research will concentrate to a certain extent on the phenomenon of online-learning, due to the nature of ICTs, other electronic mediums will be explored. This wide variety of possible educational formats demonstrates a potential of ICT based education, it’s inherent flexibility produced by the many different tools it can make use of. To continue, E-learning is thought to enable greater access to learning through removing logistical problems, as indicated earlier. This is done through use of the internet, video, radio

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. and television, mediums through which lessons and information can be transmitted from one location to another without the pupil or teacher having to move. This form of providing lessons could also help to remove psychological barriers to education such as people of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, as the teacher does not necessarily see the pupil and thus cannot make the choice to teach on religion or skin colour. Yet access problems are also created by the use of E-learning, through the need to acquire relatively expensive equipment in order to partake in such education. Thus access is both a potential and a pitfall. E-Learning is also presumed to be dual purpose, in that the skills needed to undertake the learning, are also valuable skills in themselves, especially in today’s computerised world. Time constraints are also thought to be removed, as downloadable content, lessons on compact discs, cassettes or videos allow the pupil to learn at a time that is more appropriate to their needs. Finally e-learning is thought to allow for more responsibility and freedom as the pupil is asked to adopt some of the more traditionally ‘teacher’ roles, thus for example discipline to learn must come from the pupil, exercises can be self corrected, and choices about lesson content can be made. This last idea also helps to transform teacher-pupil relationships, through challenging traditional roles, thus may aid in moving towards Friere’s (1972) conception of learning, one in which each participant is at once teacher and pupil. To summarise Peace education is defined here as the provision of the necessary knowledge and skills to avoid or transform conflict. E-learning is the use of electronic mediums to aid in the learning process, with concentration in this instance on the use of ICTs. These technologies are used to remove physical and psychological access barriers, transform learning relationships and empower pupils to learn at their own pace, need and desire.

3.2) Peace education after the event This section will return to analyse more ‘traditional’ peace education schemes undertaken within the post-conflict development phase, meaning those that do not necessarily require or utilise ICTs. This exercise has two important functions, firstly it further elaborates and explains what peace education entails by providing physical examples, secondly it provides a checklist of activities and goals to which one can compare the few ICT centred schemes in practice. To clarify the justification given for this research was the lack of actual ICT based s chemes, therefore in order to effectively explore the potential of ICT based schemes it is important to have goals and activities to which to compare the possibilities of ICTs. For example if an exploration of Peace education schemes revealed that face-to-face learning and interaction is the most important element, then learning via ICTs may not be of much use. This exploration will begin with a review of the work done by ‘Education for PeaceBalkans’ (EFP) in Bosnia. EFP International is a not-for-profit organisation registered in Switzerland, concerned with ‘research, training and community development’ 29with the intention of equipping future generations with the skills to prevent conflict. EFP-Balkans is a field office of EFP International, concerned with teaching conflict-free-conflict-resolution (CFCR) skills in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. EFP-Balkans takes guidance from the general EFP program yet is at the same time a specifically designed program to deal with the specific ethnic conflict that still continues to afflict the Balkans. The program is a mainly print format education scheme designed by Dr H.B Danesh30 implemented across Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia), providing education for peace through exploring such themes as; unity, human nature, conflict-free conflict resolution, dynamics of conflict, decision-making and leadership. The program was initially piloted in 6 schools in 2000, these schools were chosen
www.efpinternational.org EFP-Balkans Dr H.B. Danesh is a former professor of Landegg International Univeristy, Department of Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies.
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. for their location across all the different ethnic regions of Bosnia. The program affected ‘approximately 6,000 students, 400 school staff (teachers, administrators, support staff) and 10,000 parents and guardians’31. Today EFP schemes are in place in approximately 112 schools across Bosnia. The scheme is reliant on face-to-face interaction, not only between pupils and teachers but also the wider community who are encouraged to become involved through the design of peace days and pupils becoming ‘teachers’ for their family and friends. However EFP do foresee a possible use for ICTs, thus whilst in Bosnia they have undertaken in-depth teacher training, they also provide a curriculum and activities on CD-Rom to complement this training or as a basis for others unable to undertake the training to engage in the same activities. In addition an online community has been set up to allow the teachers participating in the scheme to communicate with one another, share useful techniques, ask questions, and so on. Finally the scheme also involves a number of multi-media aspects, such as the use of CD-Rom, video and computers, which have introduced the local population to such phenomenon. Yet EFP staff and objectives explicitly state that, ‘The EFP Program,…, will never function solely as an on-line learning program. The face-to-face relationship between the school communities and the opportunity to share ideas, learn together,…are crucial elements in the success of the program’32. EFP believe that the human element is the only way in which to break down the ethnic hatreds and misunderstandings which characterised the Balkan conflict, and indeed many of today’s conflicts. ICTs in this instance are observed more as an added extra then an integral component, with access problems and lack of personal contact seen as barriers to its necessity. To expand on the idea of access problems, from correspondence with S. Heikkinen of EFP Balkans it was made clear that access would be inhibited by lack of IT skills and computer facilities. This problem was marginally addressed through IT instruction included in the teacher training that takes place two times a year, although this instruction consisted of how to use the specific EFP applications not general ICT skills. Additionally IT teachers were encouraged to become involved in the process to aid the other teachers in implementing the ICT elements of the curriculum. Yet access problems can also occur in the implementation of more ‘traditional’ peace education schemes, for example the EFP program is implemented in Bosnian schools and yet not all children have access, for example Roma are still excluded in many places, in addition to schools remaining in a large part single ethnicity, thus if children live in the wrong area they may not have the same access to school as others. The EFP program has been designed to be implemented into the Balkans, thus the curriculum and activities are in part designed with the Balkan conflict in mind. However S.Heikkenen explains that the curriculum is expected to be universally applicable, and will hopefully be employed in Africa33 amongst other places. In order to ensure this universal-local applicability, field EFP teams are expected to make adjustments so that the universal principles are culturally acceptable, thus for example ensuring the curriculum is translated into all local languages, contains references to important local events and compliments the local curriculum.The former being an essential element but one that is not necessarily easy to obtain, for example when transferring the EFP program to Africa, EFP may encounter high levels of illiteracy and thus fewer people capable enough in the local language to translate the curriculum. The field based team also encourage feedback from teachers and pupils participating in order to improve the curriculum. Yet to return to the ideas of Lederach (1997), even though EFP were invited to implement this peace education scheme and it is widely accepted by the local people, ‘There are many projects, but in my opinion and that of my colleagues, EFP is one of the
www.efpinternational.org Taken from email correspondence from S.Heikkinen on the 25/06/06 33 The introduction indicated that a large number of contemporary conflict occurs in Africa
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. best’34, it should be more locally based in order to be more sustainable and perhaps to have a deeper impact. The latter meaning that if the project is locally initiated then those who undertook the conflict are pushed to undertake the peace, not offered it from outside. Many peace education schemes suffer from this problem, for example the most used method for providing conflict free conflict resolution skills, or a peace education is for ‘experts’ to run workshops. These workshops are normally limited in number and duration, and often run by foreign professionals, although they may train locals to continue teaching upon their departure. This evidently, whilst providing the requisite skills and knowledge, is is not a locally based or staffed initiative, and even where involving local experts is often not particularly widereaching. Traditional methods may be ignored or devalued and creativity inhibited as local people are encouraged to take the place of students in what Friere (1972) dubs ‘banking education’. Precisely this form of peace education deposits the skills in local people, which ignore the fact that the skills are already locally present they just need to be encouraged. Finally using the ‘banking’ or workshop approach often requires a degree of literacy, succinctly it is a western approach with western expectations. To exemplify there is often written text to read and learn, this evidently needs to be translated into the local language. In developing countries univeral literacy cannot always be expected, as education is often not prioritised in the allocation of scarce funding. In some cases years of warfare have inhibited the possibility of gaining a basic education, as all funding and personnel either flee or become involved in the conflict. Thus understanding of any peace education scheme can be inhibited by such simple situations as the inability to translate certain key words or lessons, along with misunderstandings rising out of cultural differences. This is evidently a potential difficulty with introducing ICTs, although it can also be seen as a potential of ICTs as they allow any education scheme to be more flexible and interactive and thus perhaps more able to adapt to cultural and language differences. The last section touched upon the cost of peace education, highlighting that lack of funding is often an obstacle to achieving even basic levels of education. Education systems are not cheap, funding can range from £3,690 per pupil in Britain to less than £50 in some countries. However they are essential no matter what the cost in order for a society to progress and remain peaceful. This conclusion is drawn from Lederach’s (1997) conception of positive peace in which educational, economic and cultural inequalities can also form the basis of conflict. This thus raises the issue when considering ICT based education of which form of education is more cost effective. Finally traditional peace education schemes have to ensure that they are sensitive and adapted to the local culture. This point has already been raised in this section but deserves highlighting because it is vital to the success of a scheme. To be specific a scheme implemented in Bosnia that did not take into account the history of that area, or the cultural biases that exist would be unlikely to succeed. To summarise the problems with traditional print and classroom based schemes are; access, a person has to be able to attend school usually in order to benefit, this is not possible for some ethnic groups and a majority of adults; cultural in/sensitivity, the schemes are often designed and implemented by outsiders, as Lederach stated the impetus should come from the locality to ensure sustainability; and Literacy, in developing countries where the majority of conflict takes place there is often a low level of literacy and thus traditional methods of teaching may not be applicable. Additional problems arising in this review in relation to the use of ICTs in peace education are cost and building trust/confidence.

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www.efpinternational.org- EFP-Balkans- Partners- Quote from Mr. Vojo Milakovic, Director of Ivo Andric

Primary School in Banja Luka

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. 3.3) Virtual Classrooms in no-mans land? The previous section has higlighted some key requirements and problems of current peace education schemes, it has also highlighted some potentials and problems with ICT based approaches. This section will review the schemes in place which make greater use of ICTs and attempt to ascertain whether they address some of the problems of more traditional programs. The problems that need to be addressed are as follows:

Access

Building Trust/ Confidence

ICT based Peace Education Literacy

Cultural Sensitivity

Cost

Figure 1: Problems to be addressed by incorporating ICTs into Peace Education

As indicated this section will attempt to address whether these problems can be addressed through the use of ICTs by using field examples, however in the event that examples cannot be found, suppositions will be made from the peacetime capacities of ICTs. DOT.Org35 is an organisation highly involved in ICT based and supported education schemes. DOT.Org and its sub-organisation the Education Development Centre is a non-profit organisation specialising in assistance through technological solutions. The organisation has worked in many post-conflict countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, West Bank/Gaza, Macedonia and Haiti36. It has conducted programs in all nearly all areas of ICT application, although of particular interest are its programs in education, such as:       Interactive web, CD-ROM or hybrid delivery learning systems Repurposing face-to-face training to e-learning Creating content for e-learning content Implemening e-learning/e-training activities, and scaling up projects Software development of digital delivery and administration applications Localizing content and applications37

Access in terms of ICTs can be seen in two ways; physical access, which entails having the correct equipment such as computers, internet connection, telephones, webcams and so forth, and skills access, which entails the ability to use such equipment effectively.
www.dot-com-alliance.org www.dot-com-alliance.org 37 www.dot-com-alliance.org
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Physical access is by far the easiest to ensure, especially considering the ever decreasing costs and improved equipment. Organisations such as computer aid38 provide old computers at a very low price, around £39 per computer plus delivery costs39. This has provided schools and e-centres in over 100 countries with 70,00040 computers since its inception 6 years ago. This includes equipping half the secondary schools in Swaziland41 with computer facilities, and providing low-cost internet to approximately 300,000 students in South Africa based on their skills rather than economic or cultural background. In addition the WSIS Summit was used as a vehicle to advertise a new $100 laptop, a laptop designed to ensure greater access to computers in the developing world. This is to be achieved by the low-cost of the computers enabling governments of developing countries to provide one laptop per child, this would then benefit the wider community, as laptops are mobile and thus can be taken home to be used and experienced by families and neighbours. Other phenomena such as the telephone ladies in India, these are ladies who use government loans to buy mobile phones and then set up an office in their village where local people can come and make their calls for a small cost, allow a greater number of people to access the new technologies and improve communications. Although this latter idea is still rather limited in terms of access but shows that the number of people able to access ICTs is vastly increasing, for example in Rwanda the number of mobile subscribers has increased from 15,000 to 65,00042 in 4 years, with the number of internet host sites showing a more dramatic increase from 1 in 1996 to 1,133 in 200143. This example highlights the ability to build and access ICT infrastructure post-conflict, as there has been a dramatic increase in ICT access, through Mobile phone networks and internet (from 1000 users in 1997 to 20,000 in 2001) in Rwanda after the genocide of 1994, and during the peace process which took until 1997. Thus the last example is most demonstrative of the fact that it is physically possible to use ICTs post-conflict. Skills access on the contrary is more ambivalent, with little information available on how long it takes to acquire sufficient ICT skills, or even what sufficient ICT skills are. According to a review of basic ICT skills and training in Africa, knowledge about the usage of computers can only be acquired through experience, and thus developing countries are disadvantaged by their lack of facilities44, although they estimate around 107 hours to obtain the basic skills in a number of areas:

www.computeraid.org www.computeraid.org 40 www.computeraid.org 41 www.computeraid.org 42 www.uneca.org/aisi/NICI/country_profiles/rwanda/raninter.htm 43 www.uneca.org/aisi/NICI/country_profiles/rwanda/raninter.htm 44 James et al. (2003) ‘Review of Basic ICT Skills and Training Software For Educators in Africa’. DFID Imfundo Initiative
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

Figure 2: Overview of Basic Uses of Computer Software45

Of course computer literacy also involves being able to undertake more complex activities which requires longer and more in-depth training. Yet computer literacy has also caused some controversy, tied in with the arguments about internet ownership there is growing concern about the content of the internet which is highly western/developed in orientation. To expand there are few websites and other content, such as podcasts, in some languages, such as Swahili, Georgian and so forth. Developing countries in general have less web content. This concerns skills access because one requires more lengthy training to acquire the skills necessary to design, and put online, websites in local languages and addressing local concerns. Yet there are ways to circumvent the lack of computer literacy in the short term. Radio broadcasts, podcasts, television and video can circumvent the lack of writing, reading and computer skills. This is because they allow the ‘student’ to listen to lessons rather than read, although evidently literacy skills need to be provided at some stage. Video conferencing could also allow for a more interactive lesson, whilst still circumventing lack of sufficient level of literacy. However one can return to the arguments concerning the problems of skills access, to explain this form of ‘lesson’ requires people with knowledge of local culture and language to record their lessons and distribute these to the population, and the population in turn to have the necessary equipment, skills and bandwidth to download or listen to these lessons. In this instance radio broadcasts may be most successful, due to the high level of availability throughout the world, however they do not allow for real time interaction between student and pupil and flexibility is lost, as lessons can only really be broadcast at a certain time. However use of Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) has proved successful, for example in Somalia, Dot.Com have introduced an IRI program that will be able to reach 400,000 children. It could also prove the most culturally sensitive means of instruction as Somalia is a traditionally oral based society46. Organisers also indicate that radio transmissions may not be as disrupted by civil strife and migration as other forms of instruction, thereby making this form of teaching the most sustainable.
James et al. (2003) ‘Review of Basic ICT Skills and Training Software For Educators in Africa’. DFID Imfundo Initiative 46 www.dot-com-alliance.org
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. The use of programs similar to Skype47, Messenger Video Conferencing or ICQ48 may perhaps be the most useful. These programs work as online telephones, but allow for the use of webcams, thus difficult issues can be pictified if need be, thus removing the need to read and write which are skills that take longer to require, whilst still allowing the provision of conflict resolution/ management skills. This second form of ‘lesson’ may also have the advantage of being more similar to the traditional format and thus less confusing to the ‘student’. In addition using video-conferencing allows for more interaction and dialogue between student and teacher, moving towards Friere’s definition of education. To summarise ICTs can help avoid the issue of lack of basic literacy skills by providing a verbal, yet interactive lesson outside the classroom. However one still needs to acquire the skills to operate the ICTs and find qualified local people to design and record the lessons. In terms of the ability of ICTs to be culturally sensitive, and in turn be accepted and have an impact it has already been highlighted that the choice of ICT can allow for some degree of cultural sensitivity. To exemplify the IRI program used in Somalia was chosen to compliment the oral tradition of the country and also the nomadic lifestyle of certain portions of the population. Dot.Org emphasise the need for all their programs to utilise local resources, thereby increasing their connection and relation to the local community. In Guatemala the provision of cheaper interney thus allowed teachers to create their own content in the Mayan language49, thus making the internet culturally sensitive through being designed by those intending to use it.

3.4) To e-learn or not to e-learn? The last two sections have sought to highlight what is needed from a Peace education scheme and what and ICT based peace education scheme can do to fulfil these roles and create new ones. This section will thus summarise these ideas, but additionally seek to answer the question should ICT based peace education be the system of the future or not? The WSIS process was highlighted in the introduction50 as being instrumental in encouraging research into the use of ICTs to help bring about a situation of Peace, precisely the ICT4Peace process. The WSIS also sought to encourage the incorporation of ICTs into education as two of its key principles51, succinctly: connecting all education institutions, from universities to primary schools; and adapting curricula to ‘meet the challenges of the information society’52. These principles imply a positive answer, i.e. we should e-learn. This is because the principles of the WSIS indicate that education, ICT and Peace can go hand-in-hand, and they have been universally accepted, as well as corresponding to the Millenium development goals, especially building bridges in society and providing universal basic education, which are also universally accepted as necessary for the development of humankind and the creation of peace. In addition the fact that the ICT4Peace goals are predicted to be fulfilled by the deadline of 2015 adds a sense of reality to the idea, e.g. it is seen as possible and likely. Yet just because officials at the

Skype- is a software program released in 2005 which uses peer to peer internet technology (VoIP) to allow users to conduct telephone or instant message conversations over the internet. www.skype.com 48 ICQ is an instant messenging computer program which was released in 1996. www.icq.com 49 www.dot-com-alliance.org 50 See page 1 51 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2003) ‘Plan of Action’. UN ICT Task Force: New York. WSIS 10 Principles 52 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2003) ‘Plan of Action’. UN ICT Task Force: New York. WSIS 10 Principles, Principle (G)
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. WSIS Conference indicate the ICT based peace education is possible, this does not answer whether it should be possible? Another more controversial ‘to e-learn’ reason is that of improved access, because whilst ICTs may appear fairly expensive the overall benefits far outweigh this cost. Gaining access to ICTs does not only entail access to peace education but also to the world system, as the developed world who dominates the world system is becoming increasingly reliant on such technologies. Thus setting up fiber optic, telephone of satellite access is dual purpose and can aid the economy as well as the provision of peace and other education. As the previous section has shown the costs of this physical access are also decreasing with schemes such as Computer aid, the new UN $100 laptop and WSIS schemes to ensure internet connectivity. Skills access is a more controversial area with claims of neo-imperialism abounding. Precisely ICTs and particularly computers and the internet are observed as predominately western or developed phenomena, with a high percentage of around 78%53 of all web content being in English, and around 19 million out of 27.5 million websites being registered as .com or co.uk54. To encourage the use of such technologies and content in the developing world, where it has been shown that the majority of conflicts occur, can thus be seen as a means of enforcing ‘our’ culture on others. However how can one train a local person in the skills needed to set up a website, community or education scheme without influencing them in some way? In addition whilst it is felt that the skills needed to work ICTs are relatively simple and quick to acquire, it is thought that around 127 hours of lessons are sufficient to acquire the basics55, this information is based firstly on the acquisition of skills in more ‘developed’ countries where people are exposed to ICTs on a regular basis, and secondly where access to computers and internet is widely and regularly available. Little research has been conducted into the ability of those unaccustomed to such technology to adapt, thus leaving questions over the credibility of ensuring adequate skills access. In addition the first example given here of a peace education scheme, that of the EFP Balkans highlighted that nothing can imitate the impact of face-to-face interaction. Whilst videoconferencing, webcams and instant messenging can aid interaction between people, indeed can even overcome logisitcal barriers such as checkpoints56, a destroyed transport infrastructure or controlled mobility. Electronic communications have yet to challenge the idea that face-to-face interaction is more ‘trusted’ and beneficial. On the contrary a number of studies in the developed world imply that the use of electronic communications can lead people to create multiple characters for themselves, thus reducing trust, and become withdrawn and less communicative with the people around them. Thereby expounding a resounding ‘not to learn’ in terms of depth of impact. In conclusion, at the present time one could answer the title of this section, to e-learn but not only to e-learn. To clarify e-learning could add to the process of peace education, yet a number of problems, such as; lack of universal access and IT skills, reduced incidence of human contact and costs entail that ICT based peace education will remain a suppliment to more traditional methods. Conflict may involve entire populations/communities, but at the same time as it is ‘community activity’ it is also a highly personal phenomenon, it is for this reason
53 54

http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info/internet.html http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info/internet.html

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http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwt.nsf/db900SID/LHON64LHY3/$File/Imfundo_training_educators_africa.p df?OpenElement 56 Checkpoints here referring to the idea that sometimes rival parties control borders, or certain areas and only allow certain people access, internet link-ups, telephone lines and so forth can often cross these boundaries more easily than people.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. that one cannot remove people from the peace process. Therefore whilst ICT based peace education may help by providing more widespread access and in some ways empowering people, it must be complimented by personal contact and physical activities.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

4) Online communities: Virtual neighbours or Virtual strangers?
The previous section explored the viability of using ICT based peace education in a postconflict situation. Peace education is defined as education to transform or prevent certain types of behaviour, and part of this transformation and prevention process is the concept of relationship building. Relationship building meaning the process by which former neighbours and friends learn how to forgive each other, and once again live, and work, in the same location. This is imperative due to the nature of contemporary conflict, conflict that is often concerned with dividing and destroying communities. We need not look far to find evidence of this phenomenon; Rwanda, Bosnia, Spain, and Northern Ireland are just a few examples of neighbours and friends fighting each other, leading to the destruction of entire communities. This is why another key concern of this paper is to research into the possibility of using ICTs to strengthen or rebuild societal bonds. Precisely just as Peace education is concerned with rebuilding society and providing the tools to avoid violent conflict, online communities are observed as a means of strengthening bonds between citizens and thus provide a further tool to aid in the transformation and prevention of conflict. This tool being the possibility to form strong bonds between community members to aim to avoid misunderstandings and create greater understanding about the multitude of interests and positions involved in one community and its decisions. Additionally online communities can be seen as a means of transferring information, as people share their experiences, explain their actions, share their knowledge and so on. To exemplify with a frivolous example, in a cooking chatroom, people share recipes, experiences of making certain dishes and advice on where to differentiate from the recipe for the best results. In this sense online communities are also a means of education, as they allow people to gain a greater understanding of the people around them, and therefore perhaps empathise with them, gain an awareness of the causes and reasonings behind other people’s actions, gather information, and learn to work together. In short online communities can be seen as a complimentary concept to ICT based peace education, as they allow the education obtained to be put into practice, precisely online communities offer a forum in which former opposition can meet each other, talk through their differences and work towards a situation of peace, as well as being another tool by which to transform relationships and generate knowledge. 4.1) Online Communities: The Phenomenon The first online communities were observed in the 1970s, although were limited to insular academic or scientific communities, using email or simple technology such as Listservers, Bulletin Boards and Newsgroups. The first non-technical community was not established until 1985 with the creation of the ‘Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link’ (WELL)57. This was followed in 1988 by the creation of instant messaging software, precisely Instant Relay Chat (IRC) designed by Jarkko Okarinen, later advanced by programs such as ICQ (1996). Finally in 1991 the World Wide Web was released58, allowing greater access and space for the creation and use of online communities. Yet what is an online community? Originally communities were defined by geographical distinctions and physical differences, but with the advent of industrialisation and the more frequent movement of people
Preece, J. et al. (2003) ‘History of Online Communities’ in Christensen, K. & Levinson, D. (2003) ‘Encyclopedia of Community: From Village to Virtual World’. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks 58 Developed by Tim Berners-Lee the WWW was released by CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) Preece, J. et al. (2003) ‘History of Online Communities’ in Christensen, K. & Levinson, D. (2003) ‘Encyclopedia of Community: From Village to Virtual World’. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. across physical and social borders, ‘Community’ has become a more elusive and controversial concept. According to Preece59 an online community consists of 4 key criteria: 1) People 2) A shared purpose 3) Policies to guide interactions 4) Supporting computer systems It is most simply a means of people of similar, or even differing, interests to interact and share information and experiences with one another. Castells60 adds an important aside to this point, that we must remember that online communities whilst they can allow people interested in similar subjects to ‘meet’ and share information, it also allows for easier access to anti-social activities.To expand the internet and online communities can allow greater access to pornography, details of how to build weaponry of all types and also the sharing of anti-social information such as how to commit fraudulent, racist or discriminatory behaviour. Yet despite the the varying content of the information, sharing information and experiences is a key charactieristic of an online community. A second idea that is vital to the understanding of online communities is that of connecting people. Precisely the purpose of an online community is to share information yet through the sharing of information the community participants are connected. In some instances online communities can mirror physical communities, thus for example they can be used to help members of a physical community keep in contact when they are geographically seperated, or the idea of cyber-towns such as was trialled in the Netherlands61, where people can access government and their neighbours online. The other activity that defines an online community is that of a shared goal or purpose, it is often this goal that defines the information and experiences shared. This goal can often end in ‘real’ action, thus for example an online community disagreeing with a governments policy may organise a protest, lobby their MPs by providing a sample letter for every member to distribute and so forth. Charities and Non-Governmental Organisations often use online communities to raise funds and awareness from like-minded individuals, as well as offering advice on activities that the individual can undertake to help the cause. Therefore online communities serve as a means to action as well as connection. To summarise a second definition of online communities is that of a tool to empower people. Therefore in contrast to the original physically defined understanding of community the online community is concerned with the psychological connections between people, overriding physical borders. In addition the online community is a more individual experience than the traditional community, thus whilst the online community still requires more than one person to participate, this person is seperated from the other community members, indeed may possibly never meet the other members face-to-face. The online community is thus a more ambivalent relationship where members are at once connected and disconnected from each other.

Preece, J. (2000) ‘Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability’. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester
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Castells, M. (1997) ‘The Power of Identity’. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford.

Tsagarousianou, R et al. (1998) ‘Cyberdemocracy: Technology, cities and civic networks’. Routledge: London
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. To review Online Communities are used to inform, connect and empower people, building the necessary bridges between people and aiding them to organise to fulfil their goals and interests. It is through this function that they may serve a useful purpose in post-conflict development, post-conflict development as described by Lederach (1997) and Galtung (1996) which involves the growth, adaptation and transformation of people and their relationships with others. Yet it must be remembered that online communities can often create a new type of relationship between people, one often lacking the same depth of commitment found in ‘real’ relationships.

4.2) E- Neighbours: Virtual communities in action

Similar to peace education schemes using ICTs there are very few examples of online communities as a means of conflict resolution or post-conflict development/reconstruction. Yet online mediation has occurred in other more ‘small-scale’ forms of dispute, such as conflicts of interest between businesses. Whilst this evidently differs from a conflict mediation situation, in which lives may be at risk and failure comes at a greater cost, it is evidence that online mediation does occur at a level involving some degree of personal costs. To expand company disputes can affect the lives of those owning and working for the company, indeed even whole economies and so successful mediation/communication is vital and the process is imbedded with a certain level of value. Online communications have even been used in conflict situations, one example is the ZaMir program in Bosnia. The ZaMir network, meaning ‘For Peace’ in Serbo-Croat, was set up by Erich Bachman, the Soros Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy amongst others, in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. It was an email and online message board program that allowed people in war-stricken areas, especially the city of Sarajevo, to communicate with those outside, through an email to post service. This ‘service’ worked by those who had access to computers and the internet passing on email messages they received by hand to the people they concerned. Thus the ZaMir network was a means of reconnecting people affected by conflict, allowing them to communicate and begin to work together to achieve their desired result, peace. However it is an example of how ICT is most successful when it is complimented by physical actions, thus in this instance poor connections necessitated hand delivery of messages, in others traditional reconciliation methods may necessitate meetings and rituals that cannot be emulated online. The last section summarised the potential import of online communities, as a means to encourage connection and interaction between conflicting parties’ separated physically or psychologically, effectively they can be used as a means to reconcile people. Reconciliation is essential for post-conflict reconstruction because without it the hatred and injustice that led to conflict will still remain rife throughout society. Negative feeling towards those that we have to live and work with is obviously not a recipe for peace. Yet it is also important to be aware of the potential of ICTs to become a space for reproduction of conflict, instead of reconciliation and peace, thus returning to the idea expressed in the introduction of this research that both the potentials and pitfalls of ICTs must be addressed. The idea of ICTs being able to propogate conflict has arisen in developed countries through the idea of cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is the harassment of another person via email, mobile phone or online messaging, it has proved difficult to control, and some have likened ICTs to a new electronic school yard without a teacher or supervisor. Indeed this concept is taken to a much larger scale when one considers the focus of the latest WSIS conference, control of the internet, who has it and who should have it? This idea arises from the use of the internet for anti-social behaviour such as terrorism, racisim and disrcimination. To exemplify Al-

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Quaeda are known to have made great use of the internet and mobile phones to coordinate their actions and recruit new members. It is evident that online communities could be used as a tool to create peace or to propogate conflict. The graphic below indicates the key ideas and concerns that will be addressed in this section concerning the viability of using online communities in the postconflict phase, to create Peace. Once again this analysis is not concerned with the precise content of online communities but the more general concept. To explain, this section will not indicate what each page of the community should contain but instead consider whether online communities should be more concerned with for example information or communication. Thus the key areas to be looked at are as follows:

Information vs. Communication Confidence/Trust Building Online Communities

Access

Cultural Sensitivity Impact

Figure 3: Graphic showing the key concerns and problems concerning the use of online communities in post-conflict reconstruction

The first concern to review is that of whether online communities post-conflict should be more concerned with communication between people or the dissemination of information. It will be argued here that the two activities can and should occur simultaneously. The ZaMir62 network during, and after, the Bosnian conflict was able to connect people in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, with those they had been seperated from because of the conflict, as well as with people from all over the world. Yet at the same time it served as a means of information provision, especially concerning what was really happening in Bosnia, the occurrence of human rights abuses and the whereabouts of refugees of the conflict. In addition non-governmental organisations have used email messenging to coordinate their actions and thereby provide a more efficient and effective service. The dual effect of the people being connected also providing the information, meant that the information was firstly given credence, because, as the colloquial term states, the information came ‘straight from the horses mouth’, furthermore people were able to exert some control over their lives, by being able to tell their stories and talk to those that the state sought to keep out. Circumventing state censorship, and connecting to the outside world was vital to a people otherwise detached from anything but conflict. ZaMir was thus designed so that essentially to have taken ZaMir offline would have meant to disconnect all telephone lines in Bosnia63, giving the people a flexible and constant connection to the outside
ZaMir, translates as ‘to/for peace’, it was an email network set up in Bosnia to connect up peoples effected by the Bosnian conflict. 63 Digital Communications via the Internet in a War Zone.
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. world and their families and friends. To summarise ZaMir was most useful when it was providing an avenue to disseminate information via communication. It has already been highlighted that each post-conflict situation is different, with different needs and requirements, however I believe that in any post-conflict situation both communication and information are essential. An online community post-conflict therefore serves a different purpose to the everyday online communities that one may encounter. ‘Ordinary’ communities consist of voluntary members who perhaps use online communities as a form of escapism, being able to create within them alternative personas, or indulge in a subject of their interest. In a post-conflict scenario, the members could be drawn more out of necessity, a need to hear from family and community members seperated by conflict, a need to be heard, a need to regain some control over the ‘real’ situation. Thus whilst evidently escapism may occur it is also likely that postconflict communities relate more closely to real-life. For example ZaMir was concerned with organising the supply of humanitarian aid, connecting those seperated by conflict, The ZaMir network also demonstrates that online communities are able to have an impact on the lives of their participants. Precisely those people made powerless and voiceless by conflict were able to access audiences around the world to spread information about their situation and thus feel empowered in some manner. The mere fact that the network was so used indicates that the people participating had a need for access. In addition the network was able to provide some assurances to relatives and friends seperated by conflict, as demonstrated in the excerpt below, which illustrates how the ZaMir network allowed families to keep in touch and support one another despite physical seperation: FROM:Joha Glazer Serif, Sarajevo TO:Joha Glazer Remza ,Merkas Klita,Nazareth Ilit ,Karmel 25,Izrael My dear wife and children, I am alive and well. My relatives are all alive and well, and the relatives from Remza's family are alive and well. I would like to ask you, my dear wife, to send me some money so I could set up gas installations, because I have been freezing to death during these past three years. You can send me the money through the Jewish Community in Sarajevo and *please send it DM because the value of the U.S. Dollar has fallen*. I wish you all a happy Pesah... 64 Yet others argue that virtual relations can never have the same impact as their real counterparts, that the experience is disembodied and incomparable. To use Blair’s analogy, ‘people pay around $60 a seat to go to a play, even though they can see a movie for a fifth as much’65, put simply humans desire the company of other humans, Dreyfus puts it another way that in describing the process by which business mergers are made, he says it is not sufficient to conduct teleconferences but that the CEOs involved must also live together for several days for the merger to stand a chance of completion66. Bruner67 adds with reference to the ZaMir network that it was only able to work ‘minor miracles’, such as allowing people to send messages and organise protests but the creation of sustainable real peace alluded it. This last section touched upon another of the concerns that must be addressed by online communities, that of securing sufficient confidence and trust between the members of
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http://mediafilter.org/MFF/SJxrps.html Excerpt from Sarajevo Online

Dreyfus, H.L. (2001) ‘On the Internet’. Routledge: London.p 61 Dreyfus, H.L. (2001) ‘On the Internet’. Routledge: London. p.70 67 http://yoz.com/wired/2.01/features/bosnia.html Wired Bosnia, by R.E. Bruner
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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. the online community, so that they feel a sense of commitment to each other and their shared purpose. Theorists have argued that the virtuality of online communities reduces the level of commitment, with participants feeling a reduced feeling of parity with other members compared to more traditional communities. By this it is meant that people often see other members as part virtual, due to the fact that they have never met them, and therefore often do not consider the others participants as of as much import as themselves or those around them, people who are evidently ‘real’. This feeling is not helped by the ease with which one can falsify information online, for example one can be older, younger, fatter or slimmer online in merely a few words, as Max More explains the internet allows for disembodiment68. Conflict situations are often rife with false information, misunderstandings and false images of others, indeed they often thrive of this situation as a means to continue motivating people to take part, thus the virtuality of an online community where false realities can continue to flourish does not seem a fitting solution. Dreyfus even goes as far as to state that the internet ‘is the enemy of commitment’69. Therefore it is evident that if confidence and trust is to be built in an online community, it must be a community that is also able to become a real community at regular intervals. The use of webcams and Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology may help increase confidence as participants are able to see and hear the people they are conversing with, although this would require greater bandwidth capacity. Yet it can also be said that any peace scheme can suffer from lack of confidence, as highlighted in this quote about dwindling involvement in the ZaMir network, post-conflict; ‘Activists in the countries which fell out of the wreckage of Yugoslavia had quite enough to do to rebuild their neighborhoods, towns, and countries, without trying to breathe new life into transethnic or pan-slavic dreams’70. Illustrating that the participation of people is not only dependent upon building sufficient confidence or trust but also in creating the energy and will to interest war-weary people in building peace programs. The ability of an online community to be culturally sensitive and relevant is also essential to success. To return once more to the example of the ZaMir network, cultural relevance can be assured by giving control of the content to those participating. The content and direction of the ZaMir network was decided by the emails sent and the questions asked, which of course meant that a person had the possibility to get what they wanted said heard, or their question answered. Although when one reads the excerpts from Sarajevo Online71 the majority of questions seem to originate from outsiders wanting to know how the conflict was affecting people’s lives. However as one Bruner queried it was possible for certain participants to dominate the discussion and for sensitive issues to be handled without adequate care, ‘Dr. B's ability to post tomes of footnoted news excerpts and persuasively argued analyses, he presides over the list's discussion as if it were his own talk show72’ continuing to talk about how ‘Dr. B’s’ entries were all one-sided in favour of Serbs. The latter point demonstrating how lack of moderation can mean sensitive issues are not handled correctly, as Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and many others used the Network and statements comparing Croats to Nazis could hardly be called sensitive or supportive of peace. Creating another paradox for the use of ICTs, that they give the freedom to be relevant to all, but also lack the supervision to be fair for all. A paradox because if a community were to be monitored or censored to ensure that racist, fascist or discriminatory remarks were not made then that online community would no longer be free. Ironically it would then be comparable to a war situation in which news, information and communications are
Dreyfus, H.L. (2001) ‘On the Internet’. Routledge: London. p.3 Dreyfus, H.L. (2001) ‘On the Internet’. Routledge: London. p.70 70 http://balkansnet.org/MF-draft/MFF/ztninwz4.htm ZaMir: Peace Network in the War Zone
68 69 71

http://mediafilter.org/MFF/SJ_31_March_95_22_h.html http://yoz.com/wired/2.01/features/bosnia.html Wired Bosnia, by R.E. Bruner

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. often censored to aid in the objectives of the conflicting parties. As Vuscic explains online communities merely provide the tools to communicate, individuals need to learn how to use them in a way that promotes peace. Bruner summarises well the impact of the ZaMir network; ‘ZaMir has not managed to jump-start public dialogue in the war zone, it has nonetheless been remarkably effective at the quiet, thankless work of connecting one person to another73’. Online communities may, at present, be incapable of bringing about peace, lacking as they are in the self-supervision needed to use them peacefully. To explain online communities cannot force people to talk nicely to one another, to forgive, or listen to one another, these are skills the individual must learn and ICTs merely aid to enact. Yet ICTs could aid by allowing people to contact one another and be aware that there are other people with different recollections of past events. 4.3) Face-less Units and Digital Ghost-towns

One of the problems highlighted above was the challenge posed by the virtuality of online communities. Again returning to the argument that conflict in the majority of instances occurs in the developing world, whose societies are predominantly more traditional in nature, one observes that physical contact with other humans is the ‘normal’ means of interacting. This produces several major obstacles to the use of online communities, these are: how to illicit the same degree of trust and confidence that is garnered from traditional community relations? How to incorporate traditional practices into online communities? For example in the instance of tribal communities can one re-create the role of elders? and finally, How to simultaneously protect and encourage ‘human’ and ‘virtual’ relationships’? One of the key theories of post-conflict reconstruction, expounded by both Lederach (1997) and Galtung (1996), and utilised by this researcher, is the centrality of ‘ordinary’ people to the peace process. By this it is meant that not only political, tribal or military leaders should decide what the ‘peace’ should consist of but every citizen of that country, or member of that group. One of the ironies of online communities is that whilst they may be instrumental in allowing people to interact, they can also stunt and inhibit interaction. To explain, virtual relations and information and experience sharing may be encouraged, but on the contrary studies such as that of the Carnegie Mellon University indicate that ‘people who spend a lot of time online do so at the expense of face-to-face relationships’74. Rheingold adds that ‘lack of physical presence’75 is seen as a significant obstacle to communication, accounting for the advances in video images and computer graphics. Improvements in video technology that allow for real time images are important in raising the level of confidence, in the sense that they are more reflective of traditional means of communication, essentially one can effectively be ‘faceto-face’ with the person one is talking to. However one can not virtually hug a person, or shake that person’s hand, wo/man is a social animal, but perhaps we need to clarify this social with physically social, as it seems unlikely that virtual relations will hold the same strength as ‘real’ relations in the near future. You may ‘meet’ the love of your life on the internet, but you always want to see them in the flesh, the same can be said about the person you want to forgive, afterall forgiveness is an act in love.

http://yoz.com/wired/2.01/features/bosnia.html Wired Bosnia, by R.E. Bruner Preece, J. (2000) ‘Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability’ . John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester. p.21
73 74

Preece, J. (2000) ‘Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability’ . John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester. p.11
75

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. The viability of transferring traditional community peacebuilding/ reconstruction practices into effective online activities needs to be considered when thinking about online communities, especially when is is presumed, as it is here, that one of the main functions of an online community would be to assist in the reconnection of physical communities. To reconnect physical communities one is often not dealing with physical seperation, but psychological divisions caused by misunderstandings and wrong-doings, therefore reconciliation plays an essential role in bringing communities together. Yet how far can online communication, via e-mail, instant messenging or video conferencing help achieve reconciliation in a manner acceptable to the local populace? Precisely, can the technology needed for online communities, aid in the process of traditional reconciliation? To answer this question one needs to review what is involved in some of the traditional processes of reconciliation. In the western world, one is often given compensation, usually financial, as a means of reconciliation. This evidently can be done online via electronic bank transfer. In addition one is required to ask forgiveness of those one has wronged, again this can viably be achieved via video conferencing. Yet throughout the world there are different means of reconciling conflicts. For example in Uganda those wishing to be reconciled undertake a process known as ‘Mato Oput’76, which translates as ‘Process of drinking a bitter herb’, because the person wanting to be forgiven and reconcile with the other they have wronged, must in addition to asking forgiveness and making a financial contribution drink a bitter herb, meant to symbolise the flushing out of the bad act. This example is used because of the difficulty of undertaking such a process online, of course one could watch the perpetrator drinking the bitter herb via a webcam, yet would this have the same impact. In Bougainville two different reconciliation processes are demonstrative of the difficulties of transforming real activities into digital counterparts, firstly those who have been wronged hold out a stick to those who have wronged them77 in order to bridge the divide, and the second is that of planting a Tangget plant on a stone to symbolise a promise to move on from the past78. Finally below is a picture of a mixed ethnicity dance tribe, Samputu-Ingeli Dance Troupe of Rwanda79, who use their music and dance, as well as the fact that they are from three different ethnic groups in Rwanda, Tutsi, Hutu and Twa, to bring former enemies together:

http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/news/transcripts/shinn3.html Traditional Forms of Healing Conflict in Africa, D.H.Shinn
76 77

http://www.c-r.org/accord/boug/accord12/reconciliation.shtml Reconciliation, My side of the Island

http://www.c-r.org/accord/boug/accord12/reconciliation.shtml Reconciliation, My side of the Island http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0504/africa.html Examples of Reconciliation: Africa’s Contributions to the Global Community, D.Urschel
78 79

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

These examples show that traditional reconciliation is often concerned with some physical and public sign of repentance or forgiveness. The physical and public nature of the action demonstrates the depth of commitment, for example truth commissions work on the principal that it is difficult to stand up in front of an entire nation and confess one’s sins and thus if a person volunteers to do this they must want to repent. These actions are obviously difficult to emulate online or via radio broadcast, referring to the idea explored earlier about people feeling less commitment to online actions as they do to ‘real’. However online communities could serve to support more traditional methods of reconciliation, by allowing discussion about which process might be most effective for the greatest number of people, by relaying events to a wider audience via television, radio and webcam and even by aiding to organise the process in the first place. Graphical representations of the process could also be considered, but as explained above it is the physical nature of the process that gives it its impact on the people involved, something that a picture or cartoon is unlikely to do. Consider for a moment somebody did something to hurt you, would you feel like forgiving them more if they apologised to your face, or if they drew you a picture of how they would apologise?

4.4) Virtual neighbours or Virtual strangers?

It is pertinent to conclude that online communities at present could have an impact upon post-conflict development. Yet this impact is based on the proviso that the creation of online communities is complimented by extensive face-to-face contact. Online communities are able to connect people whom might otherwise be incapable of talking to one another, the ZaMir Network is evidence of this, as are other smaller initiatives such as webchats via the BBC to people in Dafur, or school projects which link pupils in the developed world to their peers in Pakistan, Iraq and other places. This ability is strong enough impetus to encourage the use of online communities post-conflict, because part of the continuing pain and anger of people is caused out of fear about loved ones, as shown by the impact of the Truth commission in South Africa. To explain when family members learnt what had happened to their loved ones they were able to move on with their lives and forgiving the perpetrators. Contact to the outside world is also important, to perhaps gain information that is not available nationally, and Bruner says that

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. within the ZaMir context this contact with those unaffected by war was important to show that normal life still existed and somebody still cared. Yet as has been highlighted throughtout this section it is unlikely that relationships built online will be as strong as those built through face-to-face interaction. Physical communities are still of utmost importance, whether this ‘physical’ contact is phased in at a later stage after virtual interaction has been cemented, or present from initiation, is a decision to be made by the participants. However online communities just as ICT based education should at present only be used to supplement ‘real’ activities. Additionally both types of activity should be designed and implemented with a high degree of participation from the beneficiaries. To return to the dictat of Lederach, it is in the minds of the conflict parties that the conflict was born and thus it is in their minds that the peace must subsequently be built. To summarise online communities could have an impact on post-conflict development through providing a forum for community members to reconnect with one another, listen to each others experiences and gain information. Yet they are at present inappropriate as a tool to reconcile conflicting parties or singularly rebuild war-torn communities because they lack the same level of impact as face-to-face interactions. It appears that at present ICTs greatest potential lies in their latent ability to supplement and aid more traditional methods of creating a strong civil society.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development.

5) Conclusion
5.1) Aim The aim of this research was to analyse the potential impact of ICTs in providing peace education and strengthening civil society post-conflict. Each area, peace education and strengthening civil society, has been reviewed separately, with the arguments for and against their ‘computerisation’ explored. This section will thus review these arguments through 3 key areas: access/viability, impact and cultural sensitivity, to more generally answer if and how ICTs can be beneficial to post-conflict development/ reconstruction. These conclusions are based on the evidence currently available and are intended to stimulate further research not advocate the immediate and widespread introduction or removal of ICT based schemes in all post-conflict scenarios. Therefore this research in some ways compliments the work of the WSIS ICT4Peace process, which has already been highlighted as a source of inspiration behind this research. To explain the ICT4Peace process aimed to stimulate research into the potentials of ICTs to bring about peace or prevent conflict. This research serves as part of the initial exploration into the potential of ICT based education and relationship building to bring about peace after conflict. Yet it is recognised that there is still an enormous amount of research to be undertaken before it will be evident whether ICT based schemes are really suitable for post-conflict development , in terms of education and community building. This research should thus serve to raise questions and concerns that can be further explored through pilot schemes and greater research. Despite the above caveats the conclusions made in this section are based on thorough analysis and should not be dismissed on the basis that further work needs to be undertaken. As stated above the purpose of any conclusions drawn here, is to serve as pointers towards further research. 5.2) Electronically Aiding or Digitally deficient?

5.2.1) Access/Viability: is one area that needs to be generally considered, because without the technology, skills and knowledge to access communications technologies, no ICT based scheme can work. This research has shown that physical access is possible in post-conflict situations. Computers are available relatively cheaply via organisations such as Computer Aid80, who provide second hand computers for a good price, on average around £39 per computer plus delivery costs. When computers are not the desired technology of use, radios and televisions are also more widely available throughout the world. For example Rwanda, a country that in 1994 went through one of the most brutal conflicts of the 21st Century, has a high level of poverty, 50-70%, and yet also widespread access to radio 7.6 per 100 inhabitants81. Indeed it is now widely acknowledged that access to Radio was so widespread in Rwanda that it is in part to blame for the extent of the genocide that occurred, as people used this medium to incite ethnic hatred and mobilise greater numbers of people, for example asking Hutu’s to ring up and provide the address of their Tutsi neighbours82. This is indicated by a number of individuals,
www.computeraid.org http://www.uneca.org/aisi/NICI/country_profiles/rwanda/rwaninter.htm Figure taken from Data available in 1996. 82 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2072644.stm
80 81

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. such as Joseph Serugendo83, Professor Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza84, being charged with gross violations of human rights for their role in recording and airing said radio broadcasts on Radio Tele Libre Mille Collines (RTLM). If computers are the desired access it has been shown that even access to the internet has greatly reduced in costs, as technicians have proven capable to build internet networks out of rudimentary materials, such as plastic bottles, wire-mesh and bamboo poles85.

Connecting to existent phonelines is also an easy flexible option, as shown by the building of the ZaMir network in Bosnia, which as stated earlier was able to just plug into existent telephone lines and route all traffic via more stable stations in Europe. To summarise physical access is possible, and whilst it may still prove too expensive for countries recovering from conflict, whom usually have many concerns and limited funds, it is consistently reducing in price. One option that needs to be kept in mind for the future is the advent of the $100 laptop that was introduced at the WSIS Conference, an adopted by the UN. This is because laptops may allow greater flexibility, and even more widespread access as children and workers are able to take the technology home to be used by their families and communities. These laptops are also an indication that people are beginning to ‘think out of the box’ in terms of ICTs, as they are constructed in a different way to the average laptop, making them more adaptable to different environments, software and so forth. This research has shown that ICT based schemes require two types of access, physical, and what can be called skills or psychological based access. The latter refers to the ability to use the technology in question, for example the capability to turn on a computer, type, open and use programs and so forth, without assistance. This form of access has proven more difficult to ascertain as widely possible. In the examples explored in this piece the participants/recipients of ICTs have proved capable of using computers, although the EFP program for example ensures that all information is simultaneously available in traditional print format so that those that are ICT illiterate are still able to benefit. In most of the instances where computers, for example, have been used this is usually under the supervision and training of ICT experts, or at least those experienced in the use of ICTs, therefore what happens if these individuals are unavailable? The conclusion one can draw from the viability of skills based access is that more work needs to be done on determining how difficult it is to obtain the necessary skills. This is important given the rapid response that is needed post-conflict, because if it takes too long to master an ICT then it renders that piece of technology useless for the purposes of post-conflict reconstruction, at least in the short-term. The data we have at present is based on the acquiring of computer skills by those who are surrounded by the software. Additionally it is important to determine how dual-use these skills really are in the society in question. To be more precise if

83 84 85

jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/09/rwanda-hate-radio-broadcaster.php http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2072644.stm See section earlier on Geek Corps (www.geekcorps.org)

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. ICT skills are only to be used for the purposes of learning or communicating and not as a means of employment or to benefit the economy, are they really beng cost-effective? 5.2.2) Impact Impact is a second area that is vital to ascertaining the potential of ICT based education, precisely if ICTs do not aid in educating or strengthening civil society then they are useless as a basis for such schemes. Measuring impact is obviously a very difficult and objective task, with every person having their own perception of what constitutes impact. For example regular use of computers, televisions or radios provided may serve as evidence that ICTs have had an impact, for one evaluator, whilst another may require more evidence, thus require to know what the computers are being used for, how this use is benefitting the community or education system and so on. This research has shown that ICTs do have an impact, for example one can recall the expressions of those people who were able to use the ZaMir network during the Bosnian conflict, ‘Until peace is firmly established, those networking for peace at ZaMir and elsewhere can merely fight a battle of attrition. In the face of despair, the hackers supply ordinary civilians with one precious commodity - hope.’86 5.2.3) Cultural Sensitivity Thirdly the ability of ICTs to be culturally sensitive has proved to be a key consideration when considering their potential to aid post-conflict. This is because especially when dealing with such sensitive issues as peace education and relationship building one has to be able to incorporate local traditions and culture. The turmoil of war leaves people with little to rely on, but customs and traditions often remain, they are the tools by which people find their way back to a semblance of society. Examples of this phenomenon are: the use of Gacaca Trials in Rwanda, which meant that many perpertrators of the Genocide were tried by traditional elder courts, rather than the UN Tribunal, the process of chewing beutel nut, mustard and lime in Bougainville to symbolise the reconciliation process and so forth. ICTs do not need to necessarily replicate these traditional processes but they need to be aware of and sensitive to them. Cultural sensitivity has also be shown to entail the availability of programs and content in the local language and that the content available being reflective of local needs. This is an area that has been little explored in current

5.3) Prospects At present it is unlikely that ICT based education will predominate in any post-conflict situation, due to a number of inhibiting factors such as lack of local expertise, limited funds and . Yet what are the forseeable roles for ICTs in the post-conflict situations of the future? ICTs can be a valuable support in providing creative and flexible education schemes to keep people interested and excited about obtaining an education, as well as capable of accessing the education system. The programs of DOT.Org provide some illustration of the
86

http://yoz.com/wired/2.01/features/bosnia.html Wired Bosnia, by R.E. Bruner

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. former as they encourage teachers to use the internet to illustrate their curriculum, such as the use of the Vanga Resource Centre by schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to support science experiments and so forth with concrete evidence through internet searches87. In addition DOT.Org programs encourage the use of local resources to reinvigorate the national curriculum, again one can take an example from the DRC where clay pots and cloth were used to demonstrate water filtration88. Communications technology has also proved capable of re-connecting individuals disconnected by conflict, the ZaMir network is one example of this. It showed how ICTs can provide hope, information and a means of empowerment to those affected by conflict. This helped to move the peace process along as people were able to seek answers to their concerns and tell the truth prior to the official ending of conflict. Thus for example an internationally monitored chat-room, or email message board could serve as a pre-truth commission in conflict areas. The role of a truth commission being to reconcile a society to its history and allow it to move forward, through perpertrators, victims and those affected telling their experience of conflict. This process often helps a society heal and thus if it can begin during the conflict, may have a positive impact of the conflict. It seems if we are willing to think creatively about ICTs, whilst remembering that they are best supported by a myriad of other responses, then ICTs can be a very effective tool in the postconflict development toolbox. One may question if they are just another tool then why not work with what is available, but ICTs have been proved capable of improving upon traditional methods and stimulating creativity, so why not? Especially when ICT based solutions have proved to be very adaptable. If we do find the answer to world peace, the technology in place can be transformed to support other ideas and desires.

5.4) Conclusion This research has hopefully indicated some of the potentials and pitfalls of ICT based solutions in a post-conflict scenario. Subsequently it is hoped that this research will stimulate further research, even contemplation of the possible roles of ICTs. There are three key areas that need to be addressed when contemplating the use of ICTs; Access, Impact and Cultural sensitivity. This research has shown some ways of tackling these obstacles and other areas where ICTs are still lacking. For example at present ICTs can offer little to compete with face-to-face interaction, even Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or web-cams cannot replace the experience of real human interaction. Yet perhaps this is an unfair example as ICTs are not offered as the entire solution to any post-conflict requirement, but as a means of improving present solutions. Thus in this instance VoIP and web-cams can help create some semblance of normality whilst road-blocks, or other physical obstacles prevent family members and friends being in the same location. This research has shown that ICTs can potentially aid in the provision of peace education and also in the strengthening of civil society, with the proviso that ICT based schemes are complimented with more traditional means of interaction and problem solving. For example the EFP scheme in Bosnia has been very successful given the feedback that is available from those that participated, however EFP made the ICT component of their course a means of adding creativity to the education scheme, not as the entirety, thus teachers, pupils and the wider community were still able to communicate in the traditional manner and hold more traditional events such as Peace days and festivals. The DOT-Org program in the Kyrgyz
87 88

www.dot-com-alliance.org www.dot-com-alliance.org

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Republic89 is another example, where E-centres were built in conjuction with land development, to allow for more traditional means of employment, supported by new technology, although this project has not been in place long enough to have results it represent a growing trend in ICT based solution. A trend that could perhaps be dubbed ‘twinning’ in which traditional employment, land development, small businesses and so forth are offered the support of ICT. It is important to remember that even as ICTs become more advanced and capabale of new roles that: ‘ICT is not an end in itself. It is, and can only be, a useful tool’90

www.dot-com-alliance.org Program in Kyrgyz Republic Cawthera, A. (Not given) ‘Computers in Secondary Schools in Developing Countries: Costs and Other Issues’. Dfid, World Links for Development, Human Development Network of the World Bank.’
89 90

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7) Bibliography
7.1) Books Almond, G.A. & Verba, S. (1989) ‘The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations’ Sage Publications: Newbury Park, California Boulding, E. (1990) ‘Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World’. Syracuse University Press: USA Castells, M. (1997) ‘The Power of Identity’. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford. Chomsky, N. (2000) ‘A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West’. Verso: London Christensen, K. & Levinson, D. (2003) ‘Encyclopedia of Community: From Village to Virtual World’. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks Coetzee, J.K. et al. (2001) ‘Development: Theory, Policy and Practice’. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Curle, A. (1973) ‘Educational Problems of Developing Societies: with case studies of Ghana, Pakistan and Nigeria’. Praeger Publishers: London Darby, J. & MacGinty, R. (2003) ‘Contemporary Peacemaking: Conflict, Violence and Peace Processes’. Palgrave Macmillan: Hampshire Day, P. & Schuler, D. (2004) ‘Community Practice in the Network Society: Local Action/ Global Interaction’. Routledge: London Dreyfus, H.L. (2001) ‘On the Internet’. Routledge: London Fisher, R.J. (1997) ‘Interactive Conflict Resolution’. Syracuse University Press: New York Francis, D. (2002) ‘People, Peace and Power: Conflict Transformation in Action’. Pluto Press: London Friere, P. (1972) ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. Penguin Books: Great Britain Friere, P. (1997) ‘Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Opressed’. Continuum Publishing Company: New York Friere, P. (1978) ‘Pedagogy in Process: The Letters to Guinea-Bissau’. Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative: London Galama, A. & Van Tongeren, P. (2002) ‘Towards Better Peacebuilding Practice: On Lessons Learned, Evaluation Practices and Aid & Conflict’. European Centre for Conflict Prevention: Utrecht Galtung, J. (1996) ‘Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilisation’. Sage Publications Ltd: London

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Haavelsrud, M. (1974) ‘Education for Peace: Reflection and Action’. IPC Science and Technology Press: UK Hettne, B. (1990) ‘Development Theory and the Three Worlds’. Longman Group: Essex James, J. (2003) ‘Bridging the Digital Divide’. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham Lederach, P. & Jenner, J.M. (2002) ‘A Handbook of International Peacebuilding: Into the Eye of the Storm’. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco Lederach, J.P. (1997) ‘Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies’. United States Insitute of Peace: Washington Lentz, T.F. (1972) ‘Towards a Technology of Peace’. Bruce Burgess Printing Company: USA Levin, D.E. (1994) ‘Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom’. Educators for Social Responsibility: Cambridge Mansell, R. & Wehn, U. (1998) ‘Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable development’. The United Nations, Oxford University Press: Oxford Preece, J. (2000) ‘Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability’. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester Preston, P. (2001) ‘Reshaping Communications’.Sage Publications Ltd: London Rosenberg, R.S. (1997) ‘ The Social Impact of Computers’. Academic Press: London Sen, A. (1999) ‘Development as Freedom’. Oxford University Press: Oxford Smith, H. (1993) ‘Peacekeeping: Challenges for the Future’. Australian Defence Studies Centre: Canberra Swift, A. (1997) ‘Children for Social Change: Education for Citizenship of Street and Working Children in Brazil’. Educational Heretics Press: Nottingham Traber, M. (1986) ‘The Myth of the Information Revolution: Social and Ethical Implications of Communication Technology’. Sage Publications: London Tsagarousianou, R et al. (1998) ‘Cyberdemocracy: Technology, cities and civic networks’. Routledge: London UNDP. (2001) ‘Cooperation South: Getting Connected: Information Communications Technology for Development’. UNDP: New York Van Dijk, J. (1999) ‘The Network Society’. Sage: London Walker, B.W. (1995) ‘How to Abolish War: The UN, Military Conversion and the Peace Process’. Building and Social Housing Foundation: Leicestershire Whitehead, J. (2003) ‘Escaping the Circle of Hate: The Role of Education in Building Sustainable Peace’. Educational Heretics Press: Nottingham Woods, B. (1993) ‘Communication, Technology and the Development of People’. Routledge: London

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7.2) Articles/Publications Adam, L. (not given) ‘Fostering the Capacities of the Ethiopian Civil Society to Influence ICT Policies’. Association for Progressive Communications. Bollier, D. (2003) ‘The Rise of NetPolitik: How the Internet is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy’. The Aspen Institute. Bretherton, D. et al. (none given) ‘Peace Education Curriculum Development in Post-Conflict Contexts: Sierra Leone’. International Conflict Resolution Centre, Melbourne. Caldow, Janet (2004) ‘E-Democracy: Putting down Global Roots’. Institute for Electronic Government, IBM. Cawthera, A. (Not given) ‘Computers in Secondary Schools in Developing Countries: Costs and Other Issues’. Dfid, World Links for Development, Human Development Network of the World Bank.’ Coleman, S & Hall, N. et al (2002) ‘Hearing Voices: The Experience of Online Public Consultations and Discussions in UK Governance’. Hansard. Danofsky, S. (2005) ‘Open Access for Africa: Challenges, Recommendations and Examples’. UN Information and Communications Technology Task Force. Diehl, P. F. ‘The Political Implications of using New Technologies in Peace Operations’. International Peacekeeping, Vol. 9/3 (Autumn 2002) pp.1-24 Education for Peace (2005)’ International Education for Peace Institute: Building Cultures of Peace and Healing around the World’. Education for Peace European Centre for Conflict Prevention. (1999) ‘People Building Peace: 35 Inspiring Stories from Around the World’. Utrecht Frazier, M. (2003) ‘Paths towards Peace: A Sri Lankan for Post Conflict Societies’. Parts of Keynote speech for Computer Society of Sri Lanka, entitled ‘e-Sri Lanka: From Vision to Reality’. Frick, M.M. ‘Parliaments in the Digital Age. Exploring Latin America’. E-Democracy Centre, 2005/01 Galtung, J. 1969. "Violence, Peace and Peace Research". Journal of Peace Research, Vol.6 No.3, 1969, pp 167-191 Galtung, J. (Unknown) ‘Towards a New International Technological Order’. Goals, Processes and Indicators of Development, United Nations University (UNU), Paper No. 79 Galtung, J. (Unknown) ‘Some Strategies for Reducing Educational Inequalities’. Goals, Processes and Indicators of Development, United Nations University (UNU), Paper No. 83 Goodhand, J. & Hulme, D. (1997) ‘NGOs and Peacebuilding in Complex Political Emergencies: An Introduction’. Working Paper No.1, University of Manchester and INTRAC, Harris, I. M. ‘Peace Education in a Postmodern World’. Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 71/3 (1996)

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Harris, I.M. (2004) ‘Peace Education Theory’. Journal of Peace Education, Vol. 1, No.1. Hattotuwa, S. (2006) ‘The Future of ODR: One Brief Glimpse’. InfoShare Isaac, A. (none given) ‘Extracts From: Education and Peacebuilding- A Preliminary Operational Framework’. Canadian International Development Agency, (CIDA): Quebec James et al. (2003) ‘Review of Basic ICT Skills and Training Software For Educators in Africa’. DFID Imfundo Initiative J.Cole, S.Snyder & T. Garlake (1997) ‘Making Peace: Teaching about Conflict and Reconciliation at Key Stage 3 and 4’. Oxfam Lancaster, J. (13 Oct. 2003) ‘Village Kiosks Bridge India’s Digital Divide’. The Washington Post. Lindley, D. ‘Untapped Power? The Status of UN Information Operations’. International Peacekeeping, Vol. 11/4 (Winter 2004) pp. 608-624 Mohney, D. (2000) ‘Virtual Peacekeeping’. Boardwatch Magazine. Moss, T. & Patrick, S. (2006) ‘After Mugabe: Applying Post-Conflict Recovery Lessons to Zimbabwe’. Africa Policy Journal, Vol. 1 Oravec, J.A. (2004) ‘Incremental Understandings: Warblogs and Peaceblogs in Peace Education’. Journal of Peace Education, Vol. 1, Number 2 Ruge, I. (2005) ‘Providing Low cost connectivity for rural areas in Developing Countries’. United Nations ICT Task Force, Munich University of Technology Rutherford, K.R. ‘Internet Activism: NGOs and the Mine Ban Treaty’. The International Journal on Grey Literature, Vol. 1/3 (2000) pp. 99-105 Schoelvinck, J. (2001) ‘Bridging the Digital Divide: The Role of the United Nations’. Shinn, D. (July 7th 2005) ‘Traditional Forms of Healing Conflict in Africa’. Remarks at “African Healing Wisdom: From Tradition to Current Applications and Research”, An international conference sponsored by Pro-Cultura Inc., The George Washington University Medical Center, PROMETRA, and Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme (http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/news/transcripts/shinn3.html) 2nd World Youth Congress (2003) ‘Target 2015: A Youth Introduction to the Millenium Development Goals’. Peace Child International and the Moroccan Youth Congress: Morocco Stauffacher, D. et al. (2005) ‘Information and Communications Technology for Peace: The Role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovery from conflict’. UN: New York Venancio, M. et al (?) ‘How to Build Open Information Societies. A Collection of Best Practices and Know-how: Bosnia and Herzegovina’. UNDP Vongalis-Macrow, A. (2006) ‘Rebuilding Regimes or Rebuilding community? Teachers’ agency for social reconstruction in Iraq. Journal of Peace Education, Vol. 3, No. 1 UNHCR (2003) ‘Education: Field Guidelines’. UNHCR, Geneva.

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. Woodhouse, T. & Ramsbotham, O. ‘Cosmopolitan Peacekeeping and the Globalization of Society’. International Peacekeeping, Vol. 12/2 (Summer 2005) pp. 139-156 World Bank (2005) ‘Reshaping the Future: Education and Post Conflict Reconstruction’. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Washington World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2005) ‘Moving from the Past into the Future’. UN ICT Task Force: New York World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2003) ‘Plan of Action’. UN ICT Task Force: New York World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). (2003) ‘Declaration of Principles’. UN ICT Task Force: New York

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. 7.3) Websites http://www.ict-4d.org/ ICT for Development www.efpinternational.org Education For Peace International http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice European Commission: Your Voice in Europe (30/05/06) www.scottish.parliament.uk/e-petitions/index.htm http://www.usip.org/virtualdiplomacy/publications/reports/13.html Information Technology and Peace Support Operations: Relationship for the New Millennium (12/01/06) http://www.peacetour.org/public/index.php World Peace through Technology (12/01/06) http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_609.html Technology and Peace, May 2003 (12/01/06) http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=66&paper=2 505 Information Technology and Peace Support Operations, D.G.Boltz (12/01/06) http://www.wfwp.org/bridge/Bridge.htm The Bridge of Peace (12/01/06) http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,812886,00.html Peace Netter: Interview with Noam Chomsky, Guardian Unlimited, Oct 17th 2002 (12/01/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4587622.stm The Great Firewall of China, Richard Taylor, 06/01/06 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4471348.stm ‘Telephone Ladies’ Connect Bangladesh, Roland Buerk, 26/11/05 http://europa-eu-un.org/articles/en/article_2330_en.htm Financing of UN Peacekeeping Operations http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/SF_91/forum91.html Information Operations in Bosnia, Strategic Forum, No. 91, Nov. 1996 http://www.unmeeonline.org/itu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=54 New Technologies for Peacekeeping http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_609.html Technology and Peace, University of Melbourne http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/S&Ps/1994-95-Wi/S&P_IX/conflict_resolution.html The Role of Technology in Civil Conflict Resolution, Chetan Kumar http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/pi1342.doc.htm UN EMBRACES NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, BUT USE OF TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS HAS NOT DIMINISHED, COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TOLD, 3 May 2001 http://www.itu.int/wsis/ World Summit on the Information Society

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4441544.stm US Retains hold of the Internet, 16/11/05 http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/police-finance-unit.html Police Finance and Information Technology Unit www.glp.net Global Learning Portal (30/05/06) www.aed.org Academy for Educational Development (30/05/06) http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/activities/activitydetails.php?activity_id=92 DOT-COM Activity: DR Congo - Improving Basic Education, Especially for Girls in Targeted Areas (aka SIEEQ) http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/index.php DOT-COM e-newsletter http://www.publicus.net/ebook/ E-democracy E-Book http://www.developmentgateway.org/elearning/rc/BrowseContent.do~source=RCContentUser~superTypeId=4?source=RCContentUser &superTypeId=4&source=RCContentUser&superTypeId=4 E-Learning Development Gateway http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:205338 86~menuPK:617610~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html ICT and Education Projects http://www.isoc.org/inet96/proceedings/h2/h2_2.htm Digital Communication via the Internet in a War Zone: Conflict Resolution and the Internet, E.Bachman http://elearningeuropa.info/index.php?page=viewtopic&t=49&lng=en&sid=9a97739100270a d1e5f25fdc2fae3614 E-Learning Europa Info http://itforchange.net/mambo/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ IT for Change: Bridging development realities and technological possibilities http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/peaceed/pe_ednetcurriculum.html Looking at Peace Education. http://www.unmeeonline.org/itu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=54 New technologies for Peacekeeping http://www.montessoriconnections.com/peaceeducation/peacedirectory.shtml Peace Education http://www.peace-education.net/ Peace Education Net: Promoting Peace education around the world http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.11/zamir.html?pg=2&topic= Wired 3.11: Balkans Online http://www.peace-counts.org/eng/news_start.html Peace Counts Project http://www.peacetour.org/public/index.php World peace through technology http://www.unites.org/html/news/n200503.htm Annan’s Latest Call for Bridging the Digital Divide

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. http://www.einiras.net/conferences/Helsinki2004/Information_Technology_in_Crisis_Manage mentEINIRAS.doc The Role of Information Technology in Crisis Management http://www.un.org/documents/sg/report00/ Report of the Secretary General on the work of the Organisation, Aug. 2000 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4880702.stm Ethiopian Villagers Answer your Questions http://www.apaninfo.net/peace_operations/all_asia_seminar_2002/day_2/Distance%20learning.ppt Supporting Standards through distance training and distance testing http://w01.international.gc.ca/minpub/Publication.asp?publication_id=377057&Language=E Speeches: NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TO A MEETING OF THE NATIONAL FORUM ON FOREIGN POLICY "CANADIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN A CHANGING WORLD" http://www.bridgethedigitaldivide.com/digital_divide.htm Bridge the Digital Divide http://uk.oneworld.net/external/?url=http://www.aed.org Information Technology Improves Assistance Distribution in Romania http://www.jennypickerill.info/technology.html Geographies of Technology, J. Pickerill http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/pi1413.doc.htm UN must play a greater role in bridging the digital divide http://www.iearnsierraleone.org/pages/projects/peace_educate.html I-Learn Sierra Leone http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/ev-11118-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Communities and the Information Society http://www.oecd.org/document/8/0,2340,en_2649_201185_33710751_1_1_1_1,00.html Education Levels rising in OECD Countries http://pgw.org/pw/et2000.htm#Financial_arrangements Online Education in Developing Countries http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm Paolo Friere http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/peace/frame4.htm Peace education http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1471 Integrating ICTs in Education Systems http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1469 Costs of Computers in Schools http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_609.html Technology and Peace http://www.socresonline.org.uk/3/3/7.html 'Conflict and Co-Operation in the Virtual Community: eMail and the Wars of the Yugoslav Succession'

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E-Peacebuilding/Development: Analysing the Potential Impact of ICTs on Providing Peace Education and Strengthening Civil Society in Post-Conflict Development. www.peaceeducation.org.uk ‘Education for Peace: A Guide: Educating to make the 21st Century a more peaceful one’ http://www.isoc.org/inet96/proceedings/h2/h2_2.html ‘Digital Communication via the Internet in a War Zone: Conflict Resolution and the Internet’, E.Bachman http://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/releases/2003/927.html ‘Education: Not Always the Answer to Conflict’, 7th October 2003 www.globalknowledge.org/ict4d/ index.cfm?menuid=56&parentid=52 RE-KINDLING THE DIALOGUE: THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN RE-BUILDING POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES AND IN COPING WITH THE “CLASH OF CULTURES” http://pgw.org/pw/pmb96092.htm#introduction Online Education in Developing Countries, P. West. http://topics.developmentgateway.org/poverty/highlights/viewHighlight.do~activeHighlightId=1 08581?activeHighlightId=108581 Can Online Education be applied and benefit Developing Countries? February 24th, 2006. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1415713,00.html The Guardian Online, ‘Bridging the Digital Divide’, February 17th 2005

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0504/africa.html Examples of Reconciliation: Africa’s Contributions to the Global Community, D.Urschel http://www.c-r.org/accord/boug/accord12/reconciliation.shtml Reconciliation: My Side of the Island, J.Tanis http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=321675&apc_state=henh World Court Faces Biggest Challenge, The Hague, J.Anderson http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/834/?PHPSESSID=5ce00f92779c 166324e1d Uncovering Justice: The Importance of Scientific Reconciliation in the Balkans, www.computeraid.org Computer Aid International Main Website www.dot-com-alliance.org Dot.Org Alliance Main Website www.geekcorps.org Geekcorps Main Website www.uneca.org/aisi/NICI/country_profiles/rwanda/raninter.htm Rwanda: Internet Connectivity. http://mediafilter.org/MFF/SJ_31_March_95_22_h.html ‘Sarajevo Alive, Sarajevo Online’ http://yoz.com/wired/2.01/features/bosnia.html Wired Bosnia, by R.E. Bruner http://balkansnet.org/MF-draft/MFF/ztninwz4.htm ZaMir: Peace Network in the War Zone http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/news/transcripts/shinn3.html Traditional Forms of Healing Conflict in Africa, D.H.Shinn

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