Eurasia News

  Digital technology and Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) pose threats to human right to freedom of thought [1], identified in terms of threats to the right not to reveal one’s thoughts, not to be penalized for one’s thoughts, and not to have one’s thoughts manipulated. To lose freedom of thought is to lose dignity and psychological integrity at the individual level, and social fairness and trust at the level of society. Rights to freedom of thought and dignity [2] are protected by international human rights law, with the clear understanding that what the latter aims to secure is mental autonomy [1, 2]. In the digital society at the current technological scale, an individual’s mental autonomy in terms of agency over their thoughts, actions, and decisions is compromised by factors relating to access to information, domain knowledge and expertise, and the individual understanding of and access to the different types of digital technology and AI currently deployed. As a consequence,...

  The future of European security depends on recognizing that cooperative security is the only sustainable approach to preventing conflict. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) provides a ready-made framework for de-escalation, but it has remained underutilized in favour of North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) threat-based security architecture. The result has been perpetual security dilemmas, particularly in Eastern Europe, where NATO expansion has triggered counter-reactions from Russia. By contrast, t he Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ ( ASEAN ) diplomatic model, heavily influenced by the Helsinki Process (1972-1975), has managed to prevent a security dilemma in Southeast Asia—despite the existence of major territorial disputes in the South China Sea.  Rather than following the European pattern of securitizing every conflict, ASEAN has institutionalized a culture of trust and mutual accommodation among elites, leading to the avoi...