Kalina  Leiling

"Liberty without security is fragile, but security without liberty is oppressive"

 

By Kalina Leiling posted on January 29, 2014 on Young Professionals in Foreign Policy's wesbsite (www.ypfp.org)

in Leadership, Politics and Society, Security/Intelligence

How big data can solve complex problems in foreign policy.

 

"The fastest way to grow is to come up with a great idea,” said Alec Ross said in a presentation, as a part of the Big Data and Analytics incubator series. Mr. Ross is a former Senior Innovation Advisor for Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. He was invited as a Keynote Speaker in order to help future leaders understand the role of big data and innovation in developing foreign policy and crafting solutions to critical global challenges

 

“I consider myself a young professional in foreign policy,” this is how the 41-year old technical guru Alec Ross started his presentation on Big Data and Foreign Policy. His speech took place on December 5, at 6.30pm in George Washington University. Forty five young people listened to and benefited from Mr. Ross’s ideas on technologies and critical global solutions.

 

Alec Ross set a baseline in the beginning, giving his definitions of data, big data and metadata: “Data is the facts and statistics collected for analysis. Big data is the term used to describe the process of applying serious computer power to massive and often highly complex sets of information. Metadata is the data about data or data ‘stripped’ of content.” Mr. Ross used an original analogy on evolution. He said that land is the raw material of the agricultural age, iron is the raw material of the industrial age, and data is the raw material of the information age.

 

When the young innovator referred to the organization that has the most powerful tools to use and read data, he said, “There is the National Security Agency and everybody else.” He pointed out that 99% of big data management is conducted by the NSA.

 

Is big data big brother? “It depends,” the young diplomat said. It depends on how data is used. His opinion is that small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events and great minds discuss ideas. Mr. Ross stated that, “liberty without security is fragile, but security without liberty is oppressive.” Machines need human governance and executive, legislative and judicial oversight to function properly. According to Mr. Ross, however, the government can do a better job using these powers for data management.

 

Mr. Ross illustrated how data is underused. He noted that the U.S. Government can improve its practices in using big data. He observed that the Department of Defense invests huge amounts in technology and intelligence, but spends little on data. He also commented on big data and diplomacy: “Diplomats say that there is simply too much information.” But Mr. Ross gave a few examples of best practices in the data field. While he worked for the U.S. Department of State as a Senior Advisor for Innovation, he developed an anonymous mobile survey in Mexico to acquire data about a drug cartel. This data eventually helped break the cartel.

 

One troublesome issue is that with the rise of big data in the last five years, privacy has become radically compromised. In Ross’s opinion, anyone who expects to have privacy in personal and professional planes is naive. Ross talked about degradation of personal privacy and asymmetric views of privacy. He pointed out that privacy has a different meaning in different parts of the world. In the Middle East the term “privacy” has value on paper, but in reality it is not a prerogative. In Europe, it is a human right to have privacy. The United States are somewhere in the middle. Privacy has become politically charged. Republicans and Democrats interpret privacy issues differently. Ross called on everyone who participated in the module to start making a difference, so big data is understood and applied correctly in government policies.

 

After Mr. Ross’s presentation, the Q&A session started. Many comments and questions came from government employees, particularly, ones from the Department of Defense and the Department of State. Mr. Ross agreed the government is slow to implement changes and bureaucracy makes big data application challenging. One question that arose was about the young people in the government who want to make an impact now, but will not be in leadership positions for ten more years.“

 

Coming up with a great idea is the fastest way to get a leadership position.” Mr. Ross said, “Sometimes you need to misbehave and be impolite.” If you have an idea that can utterly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of a program, you need to be bold and say it. Future leaders should have the courage to express their big ideas, although, “This might get you fired,” Ross warned. The entrepreneur said that he failed many times, but said it was worth it. Mr. Ross shared that from the age of 26 to the age of 36 he took himself too seriously and he thought too often about the future. Now, he wants to focus on the present and live for the moment.

 

What about you? Do you always think what is next? Are you ready to shout your great idea and revolutionize the world through big data? Are you ready to be the next Alec Ross?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women’s voice- lost in the peacebuidling process

One engaging conversation about the roles and contribution of women making peaceful efforts around the world.

Three inspiring speakers.
Three amazing stories.
Three shocking perspectives on women clenched somewhere in the middle of a never ending peacebuilding process.

The facts leave us speechless. From 1992 to 2011 women made only 9% of negotiating delegations and 4% of signatories to peace agreements. No woman has ever been chosen as a chief negotiator in a UN negotiation talk. These issues cannot be ignored anymore: absence of women in the peacebuilding process has consequences for long term peace. Today it is more critical than ever that women have a seat at the table.

Amy Strayer, Chair of the Gender in Foreign Policy Discussion Group at YPFP, who works for Women to Women International was the moderator of the discussion Women in Peacebuilding, which took place on March 6, at Grange Hall in Washington, DC. Three individuals who have been in the front lines in the peacebuilding process, presented their invaluable views on women’s participation in key political conflicts. Don Steinberg, President of World Learning and former Ambassador to Angola, Rafif Jouejati, Director of FREE-Syria, and Angelic Young, Senior Coordinator of Resolution to Act at the Institute for Inclusive Security explained how including women in the peacebuilding process will lead to lasting peace.

Mr. Steinberg opened the discussion with a story from his own political experience as a former Ambassador of Angola: “The single clearest lesson I learned is that the systematic exclusion of marginalized population, in particular women, is the most important factor that negotiation agreements failed.” According to Mr. Steinberg, if you lack the participation of marginalized groups, you lack their contributions, their unique perspectives and their public support to the peace process. Mr. Steinberg was Bill Clinton’s advisor in negotiating the peace agreement for Africa 20 years ago. For those who don’t remember this crisis, the Angolan Civil War continued from 1975-2002. This armed conflict started as a result of the independence from Portugal. It cost half a million lives. It left 4 million people homeless.

What happened to the women in this devastating war and after it? “When we were signing the Lusaka protocol, the peace agreement attempting to end the war, there were forty people around the table, representing the United States, Russia, Angola’s revels, Angola’s government and the United Nations, and none of them were women”, remembered, Don Steinberg. Mr. Steinberg, a former Deputy administrator of USAID stated “We silenced the voices of half the population, we silenced a whole set of issues that will never arise. We left 30 000 people out of the peace process.“ The peace process was built around the demobilization of soldiers, who were not real soldiers. These men were given seeds and tools and were shipped back to the community where they came from. Unfortunately for the time of the war, these men lost their role in society. Women have been living without them for more than 20 years and have stepped forward in their roles of leaders of the community. When men returned to their homes, they became powerless and brutal. They started drinking, beating their wives, raping them, divorcing them, and committing homicide throughout the country. After the war women in Angola didn’t feel safer, just the opposite, they faced a new type of terror, terror at home.

A few years later the policy makers started working on Resolution 1325, the act on women, peace and security. The UN Security Council adopted it in 2000. The resolution reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. It also calls on all parties to conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict.

What’s shocking is that despite all the efforts made towards promoting women’s importance of their equal participation and full involvement in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, these troublesome experiences from 20-30 years ago reoccur again and again. Near a decade after the Angolan war, a country in the Middle East faced a similar devastating revolution. Syria was paralyzed by a civil war. In March 2011, encouraged in part by Arab Spring movements in other Arab countries, Syrians took to the streets across Syria in peaceful demonstrations to demand that the Assad regime implement long-promised social, political, and economic reforms. In response to peaceful demonstrations, the Assad regime’s security forces fired live ammunition on protesters, setting off a cycle of demonstrations and violence in what is known as the Syrian Revolution. Ms. Rafif Jouejati, Director of FREE-Syria, presented a new angle on the civil war in Syria and women’s role in the conflict.

Women in Syria were victimized. There were more than 400 rape houses in one city as of last year.” In the Middle East the topic of sex is tabu, let alone rape”, Rafif said. She explained that the newly formed organization FREE-Syria was trying to change the social narrative in the country. When women are raped, they don’t receive compassion or help, but rejection by their societies, families and by the world.

Many women have refused to be passive observers of the conflict. There are women that have stepped up in every level of the revolution. From the very beginning of the revolution, March 2011, women have been part of the battle for freedom, democracy and dignity. For the most part women have served in the revolution in the capacity of non-violent, civil resistance supporters, they have delivered supplies, they have done cross-border deliveries. As the revolution became militarized, women took on additional roles and started distributing medical and humanitarian assistance and this in fact became an active civil resistance. The opposition started taking up weapons, because fundamentally people have the right of self-defense. Entire communities were torn apart. Many families simply had to flee the areas.  More than three million Syrians became refugees.

Ms. Jouejati underlined that what’s happening in Syria is a revolution and not a civil war although it has been portrayed as a civil war. For Syrians, this is a popular uprising being crushed by military force, by conventional and unconventional means, like the chemical weapon attack as of August 2013. However, very few people know that the chemical weapons were used for two years. Very few people know that 22 barrel bombs were dropped in the Suburbs of Damascus. Did you know that these bombs consist of fuel, nails and garbage and they cause more damage than conventional bombs?

With fairly male dominated society, even when more progressive than most conservative countries, Syria is now in the emergence of Islamic forces. Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is not part of the opposition, but this organization changes the social and political climate in the country. In 2012 ISIS took control of the Eastern rebel-held city of Raqqa in Syria. For those who are not familiar with ISIS, it originated as an al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq and is composed of fundamentalist Sunni Muslims. It expanded into Syria when that country's uprising turned into a war between President Bashar Assad (who is backed by Iran's Shia leadership) and the rebels he had tried to crush. ISIS uses unscrupulous tactics to assert its authority. Its members are imposing the Burka (a full body cloak) and are not allowing women to leave their homes and step out of the community.

Rafif observed that women gradually become marginalized and almost eliminated. To stop this alarming trend and restore equality and education for Syrian females, she founded the non-profit organization FREE-Syria. Within it she formed the Jasmine Tent, a place where women and their families can find a shelter, receive food and education, and psychosocial support in case of sexual torture or other trauma. This program was just launched in North Syria, but its founders are hoping to spread it in other countries too.

The main question remains. Why? Why are women not at the table in significant numbers? Angelic Young, Senior Coordinator of Resolution to Act at the Institute for Inclusive Security, jumped in to share her observations. She said that the biggest challenge she faces in integrating women in the peacebuilding process is the implementation part. Only 43 countries have committed to create a national action plan to enforce Resolution 1325. The gaps are a result of the challenge of securing a budget, harnessing resources and circulating these plans internally on all levels in the government. Another challenge is that women are not considered a main priority in the peacebuilding process. Last, but not least, it is hard to measure the contribution of women in the government, police and military force, and demonstrate to other countries with statistics that their role is pivotal. Angelic Young said that currently it has been worked on drafting a plan on implementing Resolution 1325 in Afghnistan. The best international experts will be selected and deployed there and in other countries that need to adopt the resolution. They will be monitoring and evaluating all policy and advocacy efforts related to the act.

Today there are remarkable examples of women in peacebuilding, like Guatemala’s first female – and maybe most effective – attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz who criminalized domestic violence and it is not considered “a cultural practice” anymore. Instead, women who have been abused at home, can seek medical, socio-psychological, police and judicial assistance 24/7. There are also remarkable numbers which change the place of women in the peacebuilding process. Today there are 3 million girls in school in Afghanistan. When the Talibans were in power there were none. Today, life expectancy of women in Afghanistan has grown with 15 years, from the age of 47 to the age of 62. Look around for remarkable women. Look around for remarkable events that change history and women’s role in it.
Finally, war is not only what happens on the battle field. War may mean social exclusion and marginalization. Don’t isolate women, but hear their voice. Ask the women, because when we empower women, we bring freedom, dignity and democracy for all.