Peace Research Institute Oslo

Digital technologies are transforming democratic life in conflicting ways. This article bridges two perspectives to unpack these tensions. First, we present an original survey of software developers in Silicon Valley, interrogating how coders' worldviews, ethics, and workplace cultures shape the democratic potential and social impact of the technologies they build. Results indicate that while most developers recognize the power of their products to influence civil liberties and political discourse, they often face ethical dilemmas and top-down pressures that can lead to design choices undermining democratic ideals. Second, we critically investigate these findings in the context of an emerging 'new digital divide', not of internet access but of information quality. We interrogate the survey findings in the context of the 'slop economy', in which billions of users unable to pay for high-quality content experience an internet dominated by low-quality, AI-generated ad-driven content. We find a reinforcing cycle between tech creator beliefs and the digital ecosystems they spawn. We discuss implications for democratic governance, arguing for more ethically informed design and policy interventions to help bridge the digital divide to ensure that technological innovation supports rather than subverts democratic values in the next chapter of the digital age.

Extant research posits that nonviolent campaigns increase security force defection during dissent, thereby improving their success rates over violent campaigns. Yet empirical evidence remains limited and mixed. We argue that this is partly due to overly aggregated measures of disloyalty that mask important variation. To address this, we disaggregate security force disloyalty both theoretically and empirically. We contend that nonviolent and violent strategies impose distinct costs on security forces—related to repression, fighting, and exit—which shape the likelihood of different forms of disloyalty. Our findings reveal that nonviolent campaigns are more likely to trigger large-scale loyalty shifts, but their effects are confined to specific types of disloyalty. Specifically, nonviolent strategies increase the likelihood of shirking, vocal support for opposition campaigns or criticism of the regime, and withdrawal of regime support. By contrast, desertion and side-switching are more likely during violent campaigns.

Abstract This research note analyses the European Commission's Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 as a manifestation of a new spatial and technological logic of European defence: the vertical territorialisation of security. Moving beyond traditional perimeter‐based understandings of territorial defence, the Roadmap constructs a multi‐layered continuum extending from drones and counter‐drones, through air and missile defence, to outer space. Drawing on Stuart Elden's use of the concept of ‘vertical geopolitics’, the analysis situates the EU's emerging ‘drone wall’ and the European Space Shield as components of an effort to ‘secure the volume’ of Europe's sovereignty. This vertical logic reflects a shift towards electronic rather than physical control, where radars, sensors and jammers constitute an infrastructural reterritorialisation of airspace. At the same time, it reveals the European Commission's growing role as industrial convenor within what Marsh et al. term Europe's iron network. The article argues that vertical territorialisation operates simultaneously as a spatial strategy, a techno‐industrial project and a political compromise, integrating divergent national interests under the Commission's evolving defence governance framework.

Abstract In this special issue, an international group of scholars takes stock of the contributions made to the study of war and peace by Johan Galtung, a highly cited and controversial scholar, public intellectual, and institution builder. Some of the authors assess his conceptual contributions, while others evaluate the continued empirical validity of his ideas. His articles on international economic sanctions and the structure of imperialism are examples of theoretical and empirical contributions that were received with enthusiasm in the peace research community, while conceptual innovations like “structural violence” and ‘‘cultural violence’’ have found a much wider audience but a declining relevance to the mainstream of peace studies. While the special issue primarily focuses on his intellectual contributions, some articles also discuss Galtung’s arrogance and his flirtation with conspiracy theories, facets of his life that may have harmed his intellectual legacy.

Africa is undergoing a rapid process of urban demographic change. Increasingly youthful population structures are defining the continent’s towns and cities. Scholarship suggests this will be associated with greater protest incidence and lower levels of voting and electoral participation. However, these findings often rely on national-level data, despite there being considerable subnational variation in population structures between African cities. Building on existing theory, we argue that local demographic contexts matter for political behaviour. Specifically, we hypothesise that youthful urban demographic structures will be associated with lower levels of formal political participation (voting) and greater levels of informal contentious mobilisation (protest) for all individuals, and that the magnitude of this effect will be greater for younger people. We test these expectations using novel geospatial data on the spatial extent of unique urban settlements, urban-level age and sex structures, and geolocated individual-level survey data from 399 cities in 36 countries across Africa. Using multilevel regression, we find that individuals are more likely to vote in more youthful urban contexts, with young people no more or less likely to vote than their older counterparts. Conversely, we find no significant relationship between individual protest participation and city youth shares overall. However, young people in more youthful cities are significantly more likely to protest than older people. In light of these findings, we discuss how the demographic composition of individual cities in Africa nuances our understanding of political behaviour and contentious mobilisation.