When Mediators Need Machines (and Vice Versa): Towards a Research Agenda on Hybrid Peacemaking Intelligence

The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in peace processes challenges the ways in which mediators conventionally generate and use knowledge to facilitate a convergence of conflict party positions. Mediators are increasingly unable to maintain their role as information brokers without the support of automated information gathering and analysis systems. However, the effectiveness of such AI-tools is likewise hampered by their limited autonomy across peacemaking contexts, by the paradigmatic nature of knowledge that is used to design AI-systems, and the influence of subjective factors that are difficult to measure. These challenges may be overcome by hybrid human-machine systems in support of peacemaking. This article formulates a research agenda for hybrid peacemaking intelligence that is concerned with the increasing interdependence of humans and machines. It suggests studying how agency is distributed in mediator-machine networks, the hermeneutics of machine-supported participatory approaches, and how hybrid arrangements change power relations in peacemaking.