SIPRI Session, Stockholm Forum on Development and Security, 12-13 May
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have great potential for development policy and democratic governance. They enable information access and sharing among individual states and help them to mobilize around common ideas. However, ICTs also offer unprecedented opportunities for states to perform surveillance and censorship activities. Moderated by Dr Vincent Boulanin, this roundtable explored the extent to which ICTs generate opportunities and challenges for democratic development. Representatives from among others the Digital Rights Foundation and Bytes For All (Pakistan), Ericsson and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) discussed the various issues, including: the specific case of Pakistan; how Sweden supports Internet freedom and digital rights via its foreign policy; as well as the key role played by export control regimes in preventing authoritarian governments from accessing and using cyber-surveillance technologies.
Read more; check out #SthlmForum; and contact Dr Vincent Boulanin for further information. A more comprehensive report from the session will be published soon.