Ceasefire Monitoring and Verification and the Use of Technology: Insights from Ukraine 2014–2022
The aim of this book is to review the use of technology in monitoring and verifying ceasefires, drawing on the Ukraine experience between 2014 and 24 February 2022. It explores the question of how technology can be used to improve the monitoring of conflicts and the verification of whether parties are adhering to their agreements.
This book tries to answer the following seven questions:
- What needs to be in place to make the deployment of technology effective as well as worth the costs and efforts involved?
- What are the broad categories of currently available options to monitor and verify a ceasefire through technology?
- Is information generated by technology more legitimate and trustworthy (and therefore reliable) than that by humans? Following this, should the use of technology seek to replace or merely complement the work of human ground patrols in monitoring and verifying?
- How much monitoring and verification is required to support the implementation of a sustainable ceasefire and how is this related to the quality of the ceasefire agreement and the political pre-conditions for the ceasefire agreement to be held?
- While technology certainly helps with early warning – is it also helpful in early action?
- Can technology assist in strengthening confidence-building measures and dialogue initiatives? Does it change the way in which parties to a conflict communicate?
- What effect does the deployment of technology have in the pursuit of a ceasefire where there is limited political will to end violence and address the underlying conflict issues?