Description
Can technology help us understand peace processes better? Can we track peace agreements? Can we see where certain ideas came from and how they were altered through the negotiating process? Through the Quill Project model, platform and web interface, the answer is now, yes (www.quillproject.net). The Quill model, created by Dr Nicholas Cole, has implications for both research and teaching, and allows for a new depth of qualitative and quantitative analysis of negotiations. This paper demonstrates how the Quill platform shows the contribution of civil servants, how different departments are run, and how the origins of the Good Friday Agreement emerge much earlier than the mid 1990s. This paper is important because the Good Friday Agreement is used internationally as an example of a successful peace agreement. Therefore, the more in depth and nuanced our understanding of the agreement is, the greater chance there is for the right lessons to be taught globally.
