Artificial Intelligence and Peace:
World Day of Peace 2024
Senior Fellow Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love recently represented the Holy See at the second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. After that meeting, the Holy See requested representatives to post Pope Francis’ World Day of Peace message on Artificial Intelligence and Peace, which was published for the 57th World Day of Peace, to be celebrated on January 1, 2024.
The Holy Father’s Message was released on December 14 at a conference given at the Holy See Press Office.
The Pope’s Message, divided into eight sections, examines the question of the progress of science and technology as a path to peace and reflects on the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
The Pope also encourages that the ethical dimensions of AI, including issues of privacy, prejudice, and impact on human dignity, be addressed in the sphere of education and in the development of international law.
The Holy Father further highlights some of the potential risks posed by AI, for example misinformation and social control, stressing the need for the regulation and monitoring of the development of AI technologies, such that they serve the human family and the protection of our common home.
“If artificial intelligence were used to promote integral human development, it could introduce important innovations in agriculture, education and culture,” writes the Pope, adding that “the way we use it to include the least of our brothers and sisters, the vulnerable and those most in need, will be the true measure of our humanity.”
Recent IPR Events
“New Nukes and New Risks: The Peril of Nuclear Weapons in an Unstable World”
At this event, organized by Fordham’s CRC together with the Catholic Peacebuilding Network and the Project on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament, IPR Fellow Maryann Cusimano Love participated in a public forum with Papal Nuncio Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, and Mexican Ambassador Juan Manuel Gómez-Robledo. A video link of the talk can be found here.
A follow-up interview with Dr. Cusimano Love by the National Catholic Reporter can be found on the NCR website.
Breaking the Impasse to Advance Peace on the Korean Peninsula
The Institute for Policy Research, in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, co-sponsored the conference Breaking the Impasse to Advance Peace on the Korean Peninsula with a visiting delegation of bishops and government officials from South Korea.
This conference took place on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 in Caldwell Auditorium. On Thursday, October 6, 2022 there were two documentary film screenings and discussions with Korean students and our students and faculty. Crossings was shown at 10:00 am with a panel discussion from 11:30 am -12:30 pm, and A Veteran's Day Out was shown at 7:00 pm, both in Caldwell Auditorium.
Can America’s Wars Be Just?
On September 13, 2022, Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-California), Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love, Dr. Joseph Capizzi, and panelists discussed U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 109 urging consideration of "Just War" principles prior to any Congressional vote with respect to a declaration of war or an authorization of the use of military force.
Catholic Peacebuilding in Times of Crisis: Hope for a Wounded World
The world is emerging from an historic health crisis that has exacerbated existing conflicts, poverty, inequalities, polarization, and threats to the environment. While the pandemic led to unprecedented cooperation and heroic responses by many, it also exposed deficits in leadership and emboldened authoritarians, demagogues, and chauvinistic nationalists. Just as the world hopes to move beyond the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine threatens global peace in ways thought unimaginable when the pandemic began. The challenge to Catholic peacebuilders is clear: we must ensure that the post-pandemic return to “normal” does not look like the pre-pandemic status quo, or worse. That will require an integral and integrated approach to peace, development and ecology because the cry of war’s victims, the cry of the poor, and the cry of the earth rise as one (Laudato Si’, no. 49).
On June 20, 2022, an international virtual conference convened a wide range of Catholic peacebuilders – Church leaders, scholars, peacebuilding specialists and other practitioners – from around the world. It allowed participants to learn from their rich and diverse experiences in confronting challenges to peace around the world and helped them discern new and creative ways to respond to the historic challenges to peace that we now face.
Plenary sessions were in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish and French. Breakout sessions were in English, French, or Spanish, with simultaneous translation for select sessions.
Worldwide Teach-in: Climate Justice
On March 30, 2022 over 1,000 Colleges, Universities, High Schools and K-8 schools worldwide participated in a one-day Teach-In on climate solutions and justice in the transition. The Institute for Policy Research was a proud co-sponsor of the event.
The End of the Pax Americana? A Teach-In on the War in Ukraine
On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, a panel of experts, including IPR Senior Fellows William Barbieri and Maryann Cusimano Love, addressed the historical background, situation on the ground, religious and ethical dimensions, humanitarian consequences, geopolitical implications, and prospects for a peaceful resolution regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Nukes Next Door
An Online Webinar and Student Discussion on Wednesday, February 16, 2022.
The Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at Catholic University, Notre Dame University's Kroc Institute of Peace, Georgetown University's Berkeley Center, and the Catholic Peacebuilding Network's Project to Revitalize Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament hosted this student discussion.
The topic was The Nukes Next Door, with the student discussion centered on pages 19-30 of the Archbishop of Santa Fe, John C. Wester's, pastoral letter on nuclear disarmament.
Promoting Integral Human Development and Peace in the Digital Age: New Technologies in the Post-COVID World
A Conference held in person in the Sala Etchegaray at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and virtually on Zoom on Thursday, December 9, 2021.
The conference was organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Vatican COVID-19 Commission with the support of the Pontifical Council for Culture and in collaboration with Diplo Foundation, Torino World Affairs Institute, the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America, and Pax Christi International.
It brought to light emerging moral and ethical questions related to the impact of new technologies on the post-pandemic world towards new approaches to integral human development and peace. Experts offered a general scientific and ethical analysis along with case studies showcasing how new technologies can be placed at the service of integral human development, especially in the fields of food security, integral healthcare including fair and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, dignified labor, peace and security, and promotion of a communal economy. The event raised crucial questions regarding the use of these technologies and their impact on the human being and its integral development.
The discussion sought to expand upon Pope Francis's vision of the use of technology in the modern world: "we can once more broaden our vision. We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral" (Laudato si' 112).
Creating a World without Nuclear Weapons
A Webinar from Wednesday, November 10, 2021
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, and Veteran’s Day, the topic of discussion was the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons and uranium mining for nuclear weapons production, particularly on Navajo Nation, as well as the people of Kazakhstan, and the efforts to extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
The conversation was led by Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love from the Catholic University of America, with a team of students from Catholic University, as well as Mr. Patrick Ryan, a CUA photographer who shared his experience in Kazakhstan with nuclear testing victims.
BEYOND CRISIS: Haiti’s Challenges and Paths Forward
A Webinar from Thursday, October 7, 2021
Natural disasters, assassination, gang warfare, refugees – recent news tells only part of the story.
Catholic University alumnus Drack Bonhomme, founder of Haiti's first graduate school in international affairs, discussed the enduring challenges and most recent difficulties faced by Haiti, its government, and its people.
Drack joined a webinar on Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 11:00 AM hosted by Dr. James Quirk, IPR Fellow and Adjunct Professor of the Department of Politics, School of Arts and Sciences at The Catholic University of America.
Publications from Current and
Former IPR Fellows
Permanent Neutrality: A Model for Peace, Security, and Justice
EDITED BY HERBERT R. REGINBOGIN AND PASCAL LOTTAZ
This collection examines the theory, practice, and application of state neutrality in international relations. With a focus on its modern-day applications, the studies in this volume analyze the global implications of permanent neutrality for Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States. Exploring permanent neutrality’s role as a realist security model capable of rivaling collective security, the authors argue that permanent neutrality has the potential to decrease major security dilemmas on the global stage.
Global Issues beyond Sovereignty
MARYANN CUSIMANO LOVE
Other global issues books are a rather eclectic mash up of topics, headlines du jour, with an "and now this!" organizational scheme. The "hot" topics may have cooled by press time, and the presentation to students is disjointed, not clear. The approach is often a "scare 'em and leave 'em" presentation of a global horror show of problems, without clear arguments about the connections among the issues, or integrated discussions of solutions.
In contrast, Global Issues Beyond Sovereignty provides a thesis and a common narrative throughout the "issue" chapters. The range of responses to manage global issues are compared and discussed throughout. Global problems move at internet speed; governments do not move so quickly. This creates gaps in what citizens expect the state to do, and what countries have the capacities to do. This paradox is a problem not only for weak or failing states; even the strongest states in the system struggle in how to effectively respond to global issues, from cybersecurity to environmental toxins. States cannot solve or manage trans-sovereign issues alone. The power of the private sector is growing (both legal and illegal, for profit and non-profit), while state power is flat or in some places declining.
Asia's Regional Architecture: Alliances and Institutions in the Pacific Century
ANDREW YEO
During the Cold War, the U.S. built a series of alliances with Asian nations to erect a bulwark against the spread of communism and provide security to the region. Despite pressure to end bilateral alliances in the post-Cold War world, they persist to this day, even as new multilateral institutions have sprung up around them. The resulting architecture may aggravate rivalries as the U.S., China, and others compete for influence. However, Andrew Yeo demonstrates how Asia's complex array of bilateral and multilateral agreements may ultimately bring greater stability and order to a region fraught with underlying tensions.
Asia's Regional Architecture transcends traditional international relations models. It investigates change and continuity in Asia through the lens of historical institutionalism. Refuting claims regarding the demise of the liberal international order, Yeo reveals how overlapping institutions can promote regional governance and reduce uncertainty in a global context. In addition to considering established institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, he discusses newer regional arrangements including the East Asia Summit, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Belt and Road Initiative. This book has important implications for how policymakers think about institutional design and regionalism in Asia and beyond.
Legislative Hardball: The House Freedom Caucus and the Power of Threat-Making in Congress
MATTHEW GREEN
Assertive bargaining occurs from time to time in the US Congress. It became an important feature of legislative negotiations within the House Republican Party when, following the 2014 elections, a group of organized conservatives called the House Freedom Caucus regularly issued threats against its own party's leadership. Such behavior by an ideologically extreme bloc of lawmakers is not accounted for by existing theories of legislative politics. This Element posits explanations for why such threat-making might occur and what might increase its likelihood of success, then tests those explanations using the Freedom Caucus as a case study.
Notions of Neutralities
EDITED BY PASCAL LOTTAZ AND HERBERT R. REGINBOGIN
Neutrality serves different purposes during times of war and peace. ‘Notions of Neutralities’ portrays those historical challenges that neutrals faced, and are still facing, to maintain some form of economic stability and political order as chaos and wars rage. Neutrals are exposed to existential issues and questions of civil-society, international politics, and morality, in a world defiant to principles of universal peace. Every age has its own armed conflicts and while the questions they raise are often the same, the answers are different because the international word order changes. Is neutrality justifiable even when the humanity of civilization is at risk as in the Second World War or the wars of the post-Cold War era? Can those who refuse the call to arms still act by providing humanitarian services to contain the impact of war or, on the contrary, are neutrals shut-off from global politics – mere weaklings that “suffer what they must?"
This book addresses such questions through an interdisciplinary scholarship by some of the world’s foremost experts on neutrality. Twelve chapters tackle different but profound aspects of the concept over a span of five hundred years. They succinctly show the evolution of international norms in the context of war and peace. What is more, the essays portray fundamental categories of thinking about a variety of neutralities that the international system has produced in the past and present. The authors discuss the complexities of neutrality, providing a new and refreshing understanding of international relations and security for the past as well as for the multipolar world of the twenty-first century.
The Priestly Blessing: Rediscovering the Gift
STEPHEN J. ROSSETTI
A bestselling author and leading expert on the Catholic priesthood, Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti forges a renewed theology of priestly blessing, encouraging his brother priests to embrace the habit of blessing people, objects, and events. In this provocative and inspirational book he shows how the blessing is integral to the identity of priests and crucial to the spiritual wellbeing of all the faithful.
Msgr. Stephen Rossetti fears that many priests shy away from blessing people and objects because of a lack of awareness of the rich tradition of Church blessings and a deficit in training for this important pastoral practice. In The Priestly Blessing, Rossetti urges priests to boldly and frequently embrace this ancient practice because of their unique calling.
Rossetti traces the history of blessing in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He also explores the various types of blessing, such as praise of God, the invocation of special benefit from God, and being consecrated to God.