Technology can play a role in preventing the outbreak of conflict, according to the UK’s ambassador to the UN.

At the UN security council briefing on technology, peace, and security, ambassador James Roscoe said that technology is changing how conflict and humanitarian crises are monitored and understood.

“If we can see risks in advance, then we can, and we should, act before the crisis hits,” Roscoe told the UN council. “And, more timely decision-making enables early and preventative action – and that’s an area I think this Council should explore more, in conjunction with the Secretariat.”

He also revealed that the UN is working with industry to develop AI-driven conflict prevention models.

The UK ambassador explained that combining digital technologies like remote monitoring with improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance processes, can “enable peacekeeping and monitoring missions to improve their understanding of threats and vulnerabilities on the ground”.

Roscoe said that the UN could use drones to “help peacekeepers” instead of “attacking people”.

But he also warned that there are some countries using technology to supress human rights and spread disinformation.

“Technology can also be used by those seeking to destabilise – and this is particularly true in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where Russia has conducted cyber-attacks and, as we have reported, used an online troll factory to spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion about their illegal war,” he continued.

However he pointed out that technology had been used to unearth disinformation, giving the example of Russia claiming that bodies of victims lying in the streets of Bucha were a “staged provocation” by Ukraine. Satellite imagery proved that the bodies in the streets of Bucha had been there for several weeks.

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