AI and Peace
AI can strengthen peacebuilding by helping communities detect conflict early, bridge divides through dialogue, and support collaborative problem-solving rooted in human dignity. Prof. Pieter Francois, a professor of cultural evolution at Oxford University, has done research on digital diplomacy and AI. He will lead a discussion with others who have been actively studying the use of AI in peacebuilding.
Lord Alderdice
John, Lord Alderdice is a psychoanalytic psychiatrist by profession, a Liberal
Democrat life member of the House of Lords, and Presidente D’Honneur of
Liberal International. As Leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party, he was a key
negotiator of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, was then appointed the first
Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly and, subsequently, one of four
international commissioners overseeing security normalization. He now has
honorary academic appointments at Oxford, Cambridge, Queen’s University
Belfast, and the University of Wales Trinity St David. His special interests are
intractable violent political conflict, religious faith and fundamentalism, and the
problems of indigenous peoples. He is the founding chair of The Concord
Foundation.
Professor Pieter Francois
Professor Pieter Francois, Professor of Cultural Evolution, University of Oxford is the head of the Computational Humanities Lab, Regent’s Park College, University of London, and the Research Lead for the Resilient Societies Research Group, the Alan Turing Institute. He is the Founding and Executive Director of the Seshat Global History Databank. He employs a deep driver analysis to understand the most pressing and challenging issues facing the world today. He has a special interest in understanding the role religious tolerance and Freedom of Religion or Belief play in creating resilient and peaceful societies. Over the past five years he connected his empirical work with policy facing awareness raising initiatives, including through the IF20 network.
Julian Wienberg
Julian founded Dialogue Action while a Non-Resident Fellow at Stanford University’s Center on
International Conflict and Negotiation. He is our Executive Director and has over 15 years’
experience in developing and leading high-level political dialogue processes. Julian leads on
maintaining and growing our relationships with organisations and individuals worldwide and
oversees our programmes. He is also an External Member of the Computational Humanities
Lab at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University.
During his career Julian has built networks of high-level political, ministerial, governmental,
economic, business, and religious leaders across Europe, Southeast Asia, North Africa, and
Western Asia, to advance reconciliation, conflict resolution, and sustainable development. He
served as Specialist Advisor to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the UK Parliament
(2016-17) and is an Advisory Board Member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tunisia,
British Parliament. Prior to this, Julian worked in consultancy and lived in Syria as a freelance
journalist and studied Arabic in 2008-09.
