Connected in crisis: smartphones and global conflicts from Ukraine to the Sahel

The use of smartphones is transforming conflicts across the globe. This event explores the impact of digital connectivity on conflicts and provides policy insights into how we can prepare today for the digital wars of tomorrow.

Smartphones are transforming how people experience, respond to and participate in conflicts and crises across the globe. On Ukraine's battlefields, militaries engage in digital warfare, weaponising social media while attempting to control soldiers' smartphone use. Increased smartphone connectivity is also linked to disinformation and violence during electoral cycles, and authoritarian regimes remind us that controlling social media is still possible. Globally, private security firms sell expensive security apps, transnational jihadists use social media as a propaganda tool, and citizens document police brutality.

This event explores the transformative impact of connected devices on crises, conflicts, and humanitarian efforts in the 21st century. Featuring leading scholars and practitioners, the discussions will take us from Ukraine's data-saturated battlefields to Somalia and Mali's disinformation wars, and from #BLM activists on the streets of the US to digital humanitarianism. The debates draw on the forthcoming Special Section of International Affairs titled "The Crisis in the Palm of Our Hands."

Our emphasis is on providing policy relevant insights into how digital connectivity is transforming contemporary crises, what new legal and regulatory frameworks are required to govern the digital space in times of conflict, and how we can prepare now for the digital wars of the future?

Ideal for policymakers, humanitarian practitioners, scholars, and anyone interested in the intersection of technology, conflict, and global crises, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how connectivity shapes contemporary crises and our responses.

Speakers:
Adam Moe Fejerskov, DIIS
Anders Puck Nielsen, Royal Danish Defence College
Daniel Møller Ølgaard, Royal Danish Defence College
Ditte Bjerregaard, Denmark’s acting tech-ambassador
Florian Weigand, Centre on Armed Groups
Jethro Norman, DIIS
Lisa Ann Richey, Copenhagen Business School
Matthew Ford, Swedish Defence University
Michael Innes, King's College London
Peer Schouten, DIIS
Rune Saugmann Andersen, Tampere University
Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde, DIIS
Tetyana Lokot, Dublin City University

Programme:
Introduction
00:00 Smartphones in conflict and crisis: Introduction to the Special Issue, Jethro Norman & Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde

Session 1: Ukraine – the most connected war in history?
9:00 The topography of targeting, Matthew Ford
21:30 Citizen digital media practices as forms of epistemic agency in wartime Ukraine, Tetyana Lokot
36:00 Comments by discussant, Anders Puck Nielsen

Session 2: Global Digital Wars
48:10 The rise of Mali's ‘videomen’ as cybercombatants, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde
59:20 The crisis in the palm of Baghdad’s hand, Michael Innes
1:09:10 Somalia’s smartphone soldiers, Jethro Norman
1:18:30 Comments by discussant, Florian Weigand

(Coffee Break)

Session 3: Aid and activism in an era of hyperconnectivity
1:30:48 Digital humanitarianism and giving apps, Daniel Møller Ølgaard & Lisa Ann Richey
1:45:25 Who can say what with a mobile phone? The smartphone and #BLM , Rune Saugmann Andersen
1:59:25 Governing global technology, Denmark’s acting tech-ambassador, Ditte Bjerregaard

2:16:25 Discussion and audience Q&A, moderated by Peer Schouten

Thumbnail photo: © Ukrinform / Alamy Stock Photo