Digital Technologies in Promoting Peace: Integration, Impact and Challenges.

Abstract

Nowadays, digital technologies play a significant role in the daily lives of people and progressively continue to be integrated into different domains. Peacebuilding and peacekeeping organizations do not appear to be immune to this process, as evidenced by the increasing number of digital technology applications in this field. This thesis explores how these technologies are used in peace operations, what impact and challenges there are in their implementation. Examining both on the strategic level and the contextual case study of Democratic Republic of Congo, the paper seeks to empirically explore if digital technologies are making traditional peace operation models obsolete. The comprehensive qualitative study of documents and literature base demonstrates that there is a non-alignment between the strategic discourse and reality. Digital technology is a supplementary dimension in peace operations that can expand the missions' capabilities, however it is still early to assert that the traditional peace operation models are being outdated by the development of digital technologies. Key words: Peacekeeping, Digital Technologies, United Nations, Peacebuilding, Data, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)