Information at the Speed of Trust : (dis/ill/mis) Information and Security Issues

Jeudi 16 mars 2023


Hotel Monville, Montréal

The challenges related to (dis/ill/mis) information are not new yet the scope and pace of the flow of information is now unprecedented. Mis/dis/ill information is now recognized as a key security challenge by governments and international institutions alike. United Nations (UN) peace operations have encountered a myriad of challenges on the nature of their practices, mandates, and missions at doctrinal, conceptual, and operational levels.

These challenges have mobilized extensive reflections on how missions should approach the changing security and political dynamics prevalent in local communities within which missions are deployed for the purposes of peacemaking, peacekeeping or peace enforcement.  In addition, relevant debates have also generated (re)considerations related to strategic, tactical, logistical, collaborative, and cooperative challenges at the ground operational level that missions must overcome on a daily basis. While doctrinal debate and challenges related to the conceptualization, interpretation, and implementation of peace operations continue to be assessed and widely analyzed those on local perceptions and (dis/ill/mis) information are under-researched and studied.  Only within the past four years, the challenge of coping with the (dis/ill/mis) information has been introduced in the mandates of peacekeeping missions. The conference will convene scholars, practitioners and experts to discuss the complex and substantial ways in which mis-/dis-/ill- information impact security on a local, national and international level.

09:15 – 09:30 : Introduction Remarks

  • Dr. Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé
  • Dr. Yvan Ilunga

09:30 – 11:30 : How information flows in local communities within which peace operations are present, and how they impact both quotidian and long-term dynamics of peace missions/national initiatives?

Chair : Dr. Bruno Charbonneau

  • Dr. Yvan Ilunga and Dr. Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé
  • Dr. Fifi Edu-Afful
  • Master Warrant Officer Edwin Pinaroc
  • Dr. Delphine Bonnardot
  • Sebastian Fasanello

11:30 – 13:00: Lunch

13:00 – 15:00 : How disinformation is identified by international institutions and which policies/strategies are put in place to tackle the issue from a UN perspective?

Chair : Dr. Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé

  • Dr. Cedric De Coning
  • Albert Trithart
  • Pernilla Ryden
  • Naomi Miyashita

15:15 – 17:15 : How disinformation is a security issue on a national basis threatening the security and safety of national population?

Chair : Dr. Frédérick Gagnon

  • Dr. Adriana Seagle
  • Dr. Mark Duerksen
  • Dr. Dani Madrid-Morales

17:15 – 17:30 : Closing remarks