ECCRI Virtual Research Workshops are back with a brilliant lineup of speakers for the Fall/Winter session (October 2024 – January 2025) calendar! This year we will tackle how emerging technologies put pressure on the international order and key pillars of democracy, such as human rights and the rule of law.

Recent years have seen various technological developments within the private sector -including artificial intelligence, surveillance technologies and offensive cyber capabilities- that offer potential advantages to modern democracies. Yet these developments also have consequences for and pose challenges to fundamental democratic values. This gives rise to a tension between the incentives states may have to exploit emerging technologies and the constraints imposed by ideas of democracy.

What line, if any, should be drawn between how democratic versus authoritarian states leverage emerging technologies? Is it desirable, or even possible, to build democratic values into emerging technologies by design? During the next four sessions, we engage with these questions and more, exploring themes such as cyber expertise and diplomacy, justice by design, trust and interdependence, and feminism in cyberspace. Be sure to tune in!