SIPRI Update October 2023: Women in peace operations, responsible AI, climate risks in West Africa, the CTBT and more

This month, SIPRI launched its annual update on the state of women’s participation in multilateral peace operations. The statistics illustrate to what extent organizations and their member states are making progress towards increasing women’s representation in multilateral peace operations. Overall, they show that organizations are still falling short of their own strategic targets for women’s participation, signalling a clear need to redouble efforts to achieve these goals. They also highlight that gender equality remains particularly elusive within leadership roles, which calls for a focus on leadership as a critical component of any strategy aimed at enhancing women’s representation.

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SIPRI congratulates Narges Mohammadi on the award of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of ‘her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all’. Dan Smith, SIPRI Director, said, ‘Narges Mohammadi is an outstanding individual who has shown extraordinary courage over more than a quarter of a century.’

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On 13–14 September, SIPRI and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) held the first of two multi-stakeholder dialogues on ‘Responsible AI for Peace and Security’. Fifteen experts from industry, academia, civil society and government participated in the online discussion. Following the dialogues, SIPRI and UNODA launched the podcast series ‘Responsible AI for Peace’. The podcast explores the challenges that AI presents for international peace and security and connects these challenges with the practical world of AI development.

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In September, SIPRI’s work on climate-related security risks in West Africa was presented and discussed at a high-level conference in Abuja, Nigeria. The event, which was hosted by SIPRI’s partner, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Nigeria, brought together experts, researchers, civil society actors and representatives from bodies such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West Africa Climate Security Working Group.

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In this SIPRI Conversation, Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with the SIPRI Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), discusses the state of world nuclear forces in the face of growing geopolitical tensions. Kristensen explains some of the terms used in the SIPRI Yearbook—SIPRI’s annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security—and discusses the current nuclear landscape and the risk of use of nuclear weapons.

Watch the SIPRI Conversation | Read the SIPRI Yearbook sample chapter on world nuclear forces

This guest blog post from the HDP Nexus Coalition Secretariat—a partner of the 2023 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development—argues that hunger and lack of prospects are significant drivers of conflict. As the relationship between conflict and food insecurity goes both ways, long-term food system interventions and resilience building can play a crucial role in capitalizing on local capacity, restoring agricultural production and, ultimately, consolidating peace.

Read the SIPRI WritePeace Blog

This SIPRI Expert Comment explores the consequences for arms control of the vote of the Russian Parliament on whether to revoke Russia’s ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The authors write that the latest announcement is another blow to the already precarious international arms control architecture by the leader of a nuclear weapon state. They argue that Russia and the United States need to put aside their differences and get to the negotiating table.

Read the SIPRI Expert Comment

In this WritePeace Blog, Farah Hegazi writes that demand from peace operations for training on climate-related security risks has grown steadily and quickly over the past few years. This blog argues that training for peace missions on climate-related security could be critical to meeting the call for the UN Security Council to address the peace and security implications of climate change. But the financial resources required to provide such training are limited. Hegazi argues that funding should be made available so that peace operations can provide regular training.

Read the SIPRI WritePeace Blog

Developments in space have increased the domain’s relevance to peace and security. Damage to or disruption of space assets, such as communications satellites, could have serious ramifications on the daily lives of much of the world’s population. As the international community explores how to govern space security, incorporating gender considerations is essential—not only for more equitable and effective governance but also to better understand the risks associated with attacks on or interference with space systems. This SIPRI Essay therefore propose a preliminary ‘agenda’ on gender perspectives in space security.

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Social media is not just weaponized within conflicts; it can also decisively influence how, when and whether conflicts manifest in fragile states. UN peace operations cannot afford to ignore this challenge. The Challenges Forum and the UN Department of Peace Operations organized a roundtable at the 2023 Stockholm Forum to discuss how to mitigate the effects of mis- and disinformation on peace operations and what different actors could do. This SIPRI WritePeace Blog presents seven insights that emerged from those discussions.

Read the SIPRI WritePeace Blog

SIPRI experts were recently featured in the following external outlets:

• ‘What climate? The different meaning of climate indicators in violent conflict studies’, by Ruben Dahm, Karen Meijer, Ernst Kuneman and Louise van Schaik, published in Climatic Change on 17 October.

• ‘Civil disobedience and lawfare: Protest movement and contentious politics in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’, by Shivan Fazil and Megan Connelly, published in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism on 12 October.

• ‘Not so peaceful technology? What risks may civilian AI pose to peace and security?’, by Vincent Boulanin and Charles Ovink, published by the Responsible AI for Peace podcast on 5 October.

• ‘The Palestinian Authority’s Revolving Door’, by Alaa Tartir, published by the Rethinking Palestine podcast on 25 September.

• ‘A new agenda for peace and the climate emergency’, by Cedric de Coning, Gracsious Maviza and Kheira Tarif, published by IPI Global Observatory on 25 September.