Telecommunications As a Force for Stability

International Security Programme CHATHAM HOUSE

Communications Networks for Building Stability Workshop

Monday, 17 July 2006 London, UK

Telecommunications as A Force For Stability In The Arab World By Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

Current Chair & CEO, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGorg) - Worldwide www.tagorg.com Current Chair, ICC Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecom (EBITT)–Paris www.iccwbo.org Current Chair, ICC Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS)- Paris www.iccwbo.org Current vice Chair, UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development- NY www.un-gaid.org Current Board Member, UN Global Compact – NY www.unglobalcompact.org Former Co-Chair, UN ICT Task Force- NY www.unicttaskforce.org Lord Robertson, Our Program Director- Olivia Bosch, Distinguished Colleagues:

I am honored to have this opportunity to address you today and to be included in today’s outstanding program. I am thrilled to be able to share with you some thoughts on how ICTs may continue to be deployed as a force for stability in the Arab world, and I view our meeting today as a great opportunity to forge new approaches and initiatives to deploy ICTs in a more coordinated and directed way in serving conflict and post-conflict societies. Currently the Arab world is fastly embracing the new technologies for example it has the highest growth rate for usage of internet technology, at 312% annually, and like other developing areas has seen explosive growth in mobile telephony .

While most individual Arab countries have been remarkably stable, the Arab region unfortunately is home to a number of conflicts and key global hotspots, including historic Palestine, present day Iraq, often Sudan and over and over again Lebanon. Going back a little further in time we could add Algeria, Yemen and even Morocco to the list. It is more sensible to cast a wider rather than a narrower net when considering just how we may implement ICTs to promote and maintain stability. The helpful benefits of ICT’s as a potential source of stability should be realized even in countries where active conflict may have ended some time ago. We know from experience that the roots of conflict are deep, and that the sparks that ignite it are easily struck. Prevention is the best sort of medicine . The goal of finding new ways to prevent, remediate and recover from conflict is a noble and persistent objective of the international community.

As the Chair of the ICC Commission on E-Business, IT and Telecom, I chaired the ICC Conference on "Security and Safety: Technology's Role”, which took place in Paris on October 24th, 2004. The conference explored practical ways for business and governments to collaborate towards a culture of Security through motivating business to

2 invest more in security related innovation technologies. When shoes were used to carry explosives then technology had to be developed which would stop the necessity for shoes to be removed and examined . However in a sense this is almost closing the stable door after the horse has bolted and more importantly isn’t it too late to detect such explosives only at and particularly at that stage .

In order to create a society where everyone accepts their security responsibilities in this increasingly interconnected world, special attention should be paid to providing ethical education to young people, who perhaps do not view security in the same way as older generations. In addition, practical assistance will be needed for developing and emerging economies to keep pace with the thinking in the US and Europe, so as to avoid them becoming the proverbial weak link that determines the strength of the chain. Sharing of information between companies, governments is essential . Even if there are good reasons that some governments might give for their hesitance in sharing of information of relevance to national security, there is no excuse for failing to invest in IT Technology for the enhancement of protection of life and property. Our security is far too important to be left to reaction and remedial action. We need to be proactive .

Trust can be built, and importantly built on a global scale just as crime syndicates and terrorists (individuals, groups and states) operate globally. Ideally, there should be a further dialogue regarding "Global governance" under the direction of a "global champion", with the same sort of authority that is given to champions of the environment.

I have also been active for nearly a decade in the ICT4D area. As Co-Chair of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF), I strongly supported the ICT for peace study issued in 2005. The stated goal of the authors of Information and Communication Technology for Peace: The role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovering from conflict, was to raise awareness and bring the subject to a wider audience in the international community, and I believe they succeeded handsomely in their goal, while providing us with an excellent general reference on the subject. I know I can say that despite my years of work on ICT for Development, the concept of ICTs for Peace was one I tried to promote many years back. However the authors’ recommendations though focused on making or sustaining 3 peace will have a familiar ring to those who work in development. They recommend for example:

1. Mainstream ICT4Peace into broader Information Society dialogues and processes 2. Create an inclusive multi-stakeholder mechanism to promote ongoing dialogue and collective learning on ICT4Peace issues. 3. Develop mechanisms within the UN Secretariat and wider UN System for the effective management of ICT for both relief and peacekeeping operations. 4. Ensure that relevant UN agencies have the mandate and resources to carry out ICT4Peace initiatives.1

In the preface to this seminal work, UN Secretary General Kofi Anan notes the key role of ICTs in promoting peace, and their critical role in peacekeeping operations, logistics and crisis communications.

The foundation of mutual understanding is knowledge and there is no more powerful tool than ICT’s to provide this knowledge . But the knowledge must be based on full and complete information and not just selected data .The half truth is often more dangerous than the downright lie .We must not be afraid of communication the facts even if these facts may be embarrassing to governments and others . Without it there can never be trust and without trust there can never be real stability . There has to be direct access to this knowledge so that those with whom we need to communicate do not have to rely on a distillation prepared by a third , and perhaps biased , party .

These are very reachable goals. In fact we already have undertaken the same in regard to ICT4D, and it is only necessary to expand our conceptual framework to include ICT4Peace. There are many models of ICT4D projects that can be readily adapted to fit the ICT4Peace project. One excellent example is the standard UN reports on E-Government Readiness. In fact, one of my own companies , Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Information Technology International (TAGITI), is currently working jointly with the UN 1 , Information and Communication Technology for Peace: The role of ICT in preventing, responding to and recovering from conflict (Stauffacher, Drake, Currion, Steinberger 2005). http://www.ict4peace.org/fs- search/download/ict4peace_ebook.pdf?version_id=9470 4 on a survey to produce a co-authored report on e-government readiness in the Arab World, following our involvement in preparing the UN ICT TF Strategic Strategy Plan in 2002. The main objective of the project is to support the efforts of United Nations member states in their efforts to build national capacities in e-government by providing benchmarking tools for developing comprehensive and sustainable e-government capacities.

I would like to suggest that one key step that we could take in the effort to deploy ICT4Peace is to conduct a similar survey of ICT4Peace in the Arab world. What are the resources, capacities, needs and objectives that need to be considered? There are no shortages of conflicts to be addressed, enmities to be lessened, and mistrust and misunderstanding to be bridged: in Palestine, Iraq, Sudan and all over the Arab World. In addition to bridging human divides, there are governmental and cultural divides. In the Arab world only the governments of Oman, Morocco and Lebanon have ratified the Tampere Convention2 . Effective international cooperation requires greater coordination and agreement in advance on principles for working in emergency situations . Wider accession to the Tampere Convention must be an important goal. Work on identifying such targets and developing broader support for this and other ICT4Peace infrastructure is a key objective for a survey of the ICT4Peace landscape in the Middle East as well as other regions.

Actually the ICT4Peace theme fits together very nicely with another project we are in the process of forging with a team represented here by my good friend Spanky Kirsch: Arab Hope and Societal Advancement Network (AHSAN) Connecting People for a Better Life (copy attached). We could easily incorporate ICT4Peace themes, goals and methods into AHSAN. The AHSAN model is focused on inclusiveness and partnerships in e-education, e-health and e-government. It seeks to celebrate and build upon Arab history, culture and heritage, of which we are very proud, thereby providing indigenous

2 The Tampere Convention calls on States to facilitate the provision of prompt telecommunication assistance to mitigate the impact of a disaster, and covers both the installation and operation of reliable, flexible telecommunication services. Regulatory barriers that impede the use of telecommunication resources for disasters are waived. These barriers include the licensing requirements to use allocated frequencies, restrictions on the import of telecommunication equipment, as well as limitations on the movement of humanitarian teams.

The Convention describes the procedures for request and provision of telecommunication assistance, recognizing the right of a State to direct, control and coordinate assistance provided under the Convention within its territory. It defines specific elements and aspects of the provision of telecommunication assistance, such as termination of assistance. It requires States to make an inventory of the resources – both human and material – available for disaster mitigation and relief, and to develop a telecommunication action plan that identifies the steps necessary to deploy those resources. 5 authenticity and acceptability for the beneficiary populations. A project of this sort, with a positive and affirmative vision is the ideal way to also seamlessly incorporate mechanisms intended to build mutual understanding and peace, both within and external to the culture.

I am fully cognizant that these goals cannot be sustained without global recognition of the causes and not just the effects of instability. The theory of “cause and effect” is still with us and is more valid than ever. Deprivation, collective punishment, targeted assassinations, injustice, oppression, double standards and occupation have to end. But that is another, albeit simultaneous track, on which I am invited to speak later this year at the UN on Nov. 29, 2006 at the Conference on “Our Common Humanity in the Information Age: Principles and Values for Development”

I am very excited by the opportunities that the ICT4Peace platform can provide and how it expands and compliments the principles we have developed in ICT4D over the years. I intend to work to mainstream these ICT4Peace concepts and developing methodologies into projects we are currently working on in the Arab world. I welcome the support and participation of any organizations that would like to collaborate on these issues.

The U.S. led Marshall plan helped build stability in Europe after World War II through brick and mortar plans. In this information age we desperately need a similar initiative to utilize communication networks in our efforts to build a more permanent stability in the Arab World . It has to be initiated by those who are trusted and in whom the people have faith otherwise there will be , as there is at present , a deep suspicion that there is a hidden agenda or a hidden motive somewhere . The need for transparency here is just as , or perhaps even more , important here as in other areas .

Thank you

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh

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