Why shall corporations support Global Peace Tech Initiative?

Emre Eren Korkmaz
Nov 7 · 2 min read

The Centre for Technology and Global Affairs at the University of Oxford is to launch a new programme on Global Peacetech. I am the co-Principal Investigator of this Programme and we will be delighted to collaborate with any interested corporations.

Our question is “How can we use new technologies for a more peaceful world?”

The Oxford Global PeaceTech initiative brings together scholars from the Departments of Politics and International Relations; International Development and the Said Business School, as well as colleagues from civil society and private and the public sector, to explore what we call “the better angels of our techne” in the context of global politics.

Our ambition is to better understand how new and fast-changing technologies — such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data processing, blockchain and, in the near future, probably quantum — can and should serve local and transnational foundations for peace and strengthen these foundations.

There are three main reasons for inviting corporations to support our Programme:

  • Exploring the connection between emerging technologies and peace initiatives can help companies to expand their knowledge and expertise and suggest applied tech solutions for enhancing peace. This can include investing in conflict-prone countries and also countries in peacebuilding processes but also we cover all sorts of violence and focus on how corporations can contribute to peaceful social relations.
  • In collaboration with Stanford University Peacetech Lab, we focus on workplaces of global corporations to understand the dynamics of how employees from various nationalities can work together in peaceful ways to achieve certain targets set by their companies.
  • With the support of the Centre’s main donor Kluz Ventures, we bring together academics and thought leaders to elaborate peace as a profitable business case and raise a peace fund to invest in companies which delivers products and services that enhance peaceful relations. We aim to measure how companies have an impact on peace in a country.

In doing so, we will aim to simultaneously analyse the economic and political spheres where these developments are played out.

one of the UN core concerns is to ask what makes peace initiatives investable — whether or not they have a financial return or “only” a social return, and how such factors can be measured.

We will provide a long-term platform to continue a sustainable conversation among stakeholders. DFID, the UN agencies, the EU, various NGOs, academic institutions and corporations will be invited to a series of workshops and roundtable meetings to share their experiences and exchange opinions about recent developments in the field.

If you are interested in this programme, please email emreerenkorkmaz@gmail.com

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