Government Events
[PAST EVENT] “Misinformation: How to Manage the Greatest Threat to Peacebuilding Today”
A talk by Sheldon Himelfarb: President and CEO of PeaceTech Lab. A reception will follow the event.
Himelfarb first proposed the creation of an International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) at the 2021 Nobel Prize Summit. Modeled on -- and learning from -- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the IPIE will offer a science-based approach to managing the increasingly urgent and existential problem of misinformation which is gripping the planet, costing hundreds of thousands of lives each year and impeding human progress.
Over the past three decades, Himelfarb has supervised peace-building programs in Bosnia, Iraq, Angola, Liberia, Macedonia, Burundi, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and many other countries. He has received the Capitol Area Peace Maker award from American University and the Prometheus Social Enterprise Award. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University, and has been a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, Harvard University, and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
During his visit to W&M, he will describe how the global information environment is undermining democratic initiatives and trust in our institutions, while increasing the likelihood and intensity of armed conflicts. He will discuss the way misinformation has impacted the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Russian war in Ukraine, and other embattled regions. He hopes to inspire students, faculty, staff, and members of the community to recognize and work to counter the threat to our future that misinformation poses.
Contact
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