Please be invited to a brownbag on Monday 20th of February from 12:00-13:30, in the War Room. Nils Weidmann will present research on 'Information Technology and Political Violence'.
Modern Information- and Communication Technology (ICT) is frequently mentioned to be a key catalyst of peace and democracy. However, scientific evidence is scarce, and there have been few attempts to find out if ICT matters and how. I present three examples analyzing the impact of ICT on civil war and ethnic conflict: a micro-level study of cellphone coverage and insurgent violence in Iraq, a meso-level analysis of Internet penetration and group collective action, and a macro-level study on the transnational spread of ethnic conflict via telecommunication networks. The talk concludes with a discussion of theoretical and methodological challenges, and outlines future research to be done in this area.
