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Abstract
Initial versions of conflict early warning and early response were primarily designed for use by diplomats, UN bureaucrats, and top-level government officials to support early responses to avert chaos in governance, factional bloodshed, and associated humanitarian crises. More recently, there has been a shift of emphasis to early warning and early response at a local-level due, in part, to emerging technologies – especially cell phones and social media. We are beginning to see that effectiveness involves leaders at the local-, mid-, and top-levels being engaged in early response. Outsiders can be engaged constructively, but ethical questions must be addressed to guide involvement that is appropriate. Seven ethical principles are offered to steer conflict early warning and early response programing in its current programmatic and technological configurations. The principles take into account the involvement of outsiders and the vulnerability of insiders on the ground who have the most to lose if violence breaks out and the most to gain in preventing it.
Notes on contributor
Joseph G. Bock is an administrator and teaching professor at the Eck Institute for Global Health at the University of Notre Dame. He directed Catholic Relief Services' programs in Pakistan and Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza Strip, and oversaw programs in Bosnia, Croatia, Guinea, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, and Uganda while serving as Vice President at American Refugee Committee.
Notes
1. This fundamental ethical principle is often credited incorrectly to the Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460-377 BCE), who is regarded generally as the “Father of Medicine” (U.S. National Library of Medicine, Citation2012).
2. There are, of course, multiple challenges related to people impacting the lives of others from afar. One prominent example is telemedicine, which, of course, has medical ethics as an underpinning. See Mort, May, and Williams (Citation2003).
3. Some readers are probably more familiar with the levels of leaders being referred to as “Track I” for top-level, “Track II” for mid-level, and “Track III” for local level. These various tracks are explained in Lederach (Citation1997, p. 39). I refer to these various tracks as top-, mid-, and local-levels in this article for simplicity.
4. On the role of charismatic leaders in urging endangered populations to evacuate, see Barrs (Citation2004, Citation2009, Citation2010).
5. Social media is, of course, an extremely efficient tool to use in promoting violence. For example, after the presidential election in Kenya in December 2007, members of the Kikuyu tribe, frustrated by what they considered to be rigged elections, lashed out at people of the Luos tribe. A widely distributed text message, exposed by National Public Radio read: “No more innocent Kikuyu blood will be shed. We will slaughter them right here in the capital city. For justice, compose a list of Luos you know … we will give you numbers to text this information post-election” (Goldstein & Rotich, Citation2010, p. 127).
6. Responsibility to Protect was asserted in the UN General Assembly in 2005, calling for the United Nations to “establish a capacity for early warning and assessment of possible genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” This commitment was reaffirmed, as a “continuing consideration” in Ki-moon (Citation2010). See also Luck (Citation2010).
7. Ushahidi (which means “bridge” in Swahili) was developed in the wake of an outbreak of violence after the 27 December 2007 presidential election in Kenya.
8. Note that Call Data Records are held by cell phone companies. They share it at their discretion.
9. According to Ushahidi, SwiftRiver “enables the filtering and verification of real-time data from channels like Twitter, SMS, Email and RSS feeds.” Retrieved December 14, 2014, from http://www.ushahidi.com/products/swiftriver-platform
10. “Tamil Tigers” is a common name ascribed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a rebel group which fought for autonomy from non-Tamil parts of the island.
11. This is an adaptation of a phrase used by an ingenious speaker, whose name I cannot recollect, at the International Conference of Crisis Mappers at the World Bank in Washington, DC, on 12 October 2012.
12. An example of the “wisdom of the crowds” is offered by Surowiecki (Citation2004, p. 24).
13. Chenoweth and Stephan (Citation2011) explore the validity of the “positive radical flank effect” whereby nonviolent movements supposedly benefit from violent insurgencies. The authors contend that this combination can be risky in that the use of violence can discredit those engaged in nonviolent political struggle.
14. Interestingly, during the Arab Spring, the Egyptian government shut down IT services, but it backfired. When it happened, there was a surge in participation in nonviolent protests. So, whereas IT can be helpful in organizing a movement and keeping track of what is happening, it can also reduce face-to-face contact that is essential for organizing and engaging in nonviolent noncooperation.
15. Fred Cuny was a humanitarian worker who disappeared in Chechnya in 1995.
16. Note that there is a sense in which radio communications are fraught with risk because of the ease with which nefarious actors can eavesdrop. See Musila (Citation2013).