Switzerland will be chairing the UN Security Council in a few weeks and for a month. In Geneva, organizations met this week to discuss the future of war and peace for future generations.
Before the presidency of the Council, several Swiss NGOs or institutions wish to take advantage of this public exhibition in New York to show their activities. In Switzerland, the Geneva Anticipator for Science and Diplomacy (GESDA), the armed arm of scientific diplomacy in Switzerland and international Geneva, and the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) have already launched since last year a longer-term project.
Together with Columbia University, the two entities want to reflect on what the effects of technological and scientific advances will be on peace and security in the future. The first meeting of this new partnership took place on Wednesday and Thursday in Geneva.
Data control, artificial intelligence (AI), killer robots, quantum computers or biological weapons are all challenges that can affect the international scene. How to reconcile a global approach with local realities, how to get out of the Geneva or international ecosystem to approach conflict zones, these were some of the questions addressed.
The time for solutions has not yet come, but the discussion has helped ensure that the right questions are being asked. “To have an impact, we need to start now,” futures research specialist Sirkka Heinonen told Keystone-ATS. “We are in a society in crisis”, from finance to the environment via technology, and it is “urgent” to reflect.
Decision makers to convince
According to former UN Under-Secretary General Jean-Marie Guéhenno, if this exercise had been carried out 25 years ago, “we would not have been surprised by the impact of Facebook”. Political leaders would have seen its effect of change.”
An opinion shared by the Swiss ambassador for scientific diplomacy Alexandre Fasel. “ChatGPT shows that we need an instrument like GESDA”, he insists. We must try to see how the latter’s approach, which tries to look ahead to 5, 10 and 25 years, applies to the question of war and peace and to identify possible scenarios before they don’t arrive.
Problem, it is now necessary to convince decision-makers and diplomats, often entangled in the short term and the next election. Mr Fasel acknowledges this difficulty and that the challenge will be to show that the approach is “scientific” and not “militant”.
Upcoming meetings expected
If the conflict in Ukraine did not provoke this discussion, it put the theme of the war back among the concerns of the citizens. A time that “feels good” to address it in the longer term, says Mr. Fasel.
Like others, he notes how society has accelerated. Twenty-five years ago, hardly anyone knew who Russian President Vladimir Putin was and smartphones didn’t exist, the ambassador said.
Other meetings will follow in New York next summer and then in October during the third GESDA summit in Geneva. A permanent advisory mechanism for political decision-makers should then be launched in the long term, but the reflection should take several years, also affirm the thirty participants.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats