Data Capture of Syria Chemical Weapons Allegations

This project seeks to collect information related to the recent United Nations investigation into allegations of chemical weapons use in the suburbs of Damascus, Syria on August 21st 2013. Confirmed by that investigation team in its interim report on September 16th 2013 the UN investigation team found that the nerve agent Sarin had been used. The UN Secretary-General described this attack as constituting "the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988".
Data collected during this project will include government policy documents; media reports; non governmental comment and analysis. Key to the project will be the collection of material from social media platforms. These will span media sharing platforms (e.g. Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr etc.), Networking (e.g Facebook, Linkedin etc.) Blogs (e.g. Wordpress, tumblr) Microblogs (Twitter), Discussion platforms (Reddit) the more innovative sources such as crowdsourcing sites (ushahidi, irevolution, etc.) and live streaming services such as Bambuser. These materials constitute citizen reporting on the events related to the UN report and on the conduct of the investigation itself. The richness of the media means that useful data is collected both intentionally and unintentionally within meta data and background information. To increase the utility of these data a series of initial analysis papers and/or detailed thematic chronologies will be generated as well as a searchable database.
The collection of information relating to the United Nations confirmation of nerve agent use in Syria is an important task for a number of reasons including:
1. The confirmation of use has set in motion a series of unexpected events which have potentially profound consequences, not just for how in the future allegations of chemical weapons use are dealt with, but also for scholars in areas such as international relations, regional studies, toxicology and international law.
2. International responses to the allegation of use have given unusual weight to data produced by non governmental sources. This includes for example, intelligence agencies publicly referencing Internet and social media evidence as indicative of a chemical attack occurring with such force that a potential kinetic response was considered. The value of such material, as intelligence or court admissible evidence, is yet to be decided including how such material should be gathered and presented to be admissible.
3. Already we are witnessing data relating to the investigation 'disappearing' from public view as narratives concerning, for example, who authorised the use of the nerve agent are debated. Near contemporary collection of data therefore generates a more accurate repository and acts as a witness to such events, and in particular gives victims a voice in future academic and policy shaping analysis.
4. Past experience concerning allegations of chemical and biological weapons use suggests that data will continue to 'disappear' from public (and therefore academic) view as a narrative becomes dominant. Failure to collect information now that attests to multiple narratives may result in future research being based on incomplete or potentially flawed or otherwise contaminated dataset.

The impact plan builds on the team's outstanding track record of impact across a range of audiences. The PI and Co-I have been involved in a range of communication and engagement activities and have built an extensive range of contacts with stakeholders including senior policy actors directly interested in preventing CBW use.
The research is of significant relevance to users outside the academic community particularly those concerned with the development of robust national and international investigation mechanisms for allegations of chemical and biological weapons as well as operational personnel capable of delivering investigations. These include international organisations such as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Health Organization, policy makers, civil servants, the security community, including police, NGO workers and campaigners. More generally, NGOs and organisations concerned with monitoring potential war crimes will also find this project and its outputs a useful resource. The International Committee of the Red Cross for example have a particular interest in monitoring such situations and will be engaged during the course of this project.
In the UK, government departments such as the FCO and DFID and the MoD will be contacted early on. The Ministry of Defence for example has significant interest in the handling of 'open source intelligence' and the methodological approach used in this project may be beneficial to a number of their projects within DSTL and Niteworks open source intelligence project (see pathways to impact).
The outputs will be primarily disseminated as the Harvard Sussex Program Occasional Papers, and via its powerful contacts database which contains c.1500 entries. Use will also be made of the various expert email groups and listservs the project team belongs to and the various opportunities and invitations to speak which we regularly receive.
Both the PI and Co-I are deeply committed to communicating their research in an accessible manner to non-academic communities and so will produce succinct materials accessible to a wider audience to be disseminated along established channels in national newspapers and specialist journals. For example, together with the partner organisation, the PI will write for CBRNe World a magazine which serves the information needs of professionals around the world charged with planning for or responding to a CBRNe threat or incident.
The research team also intends to host a seminar that will function as both a means of communicating emerging outputs and co-producing the future programme of research. The project partner will also enable a presentation at the Cranfield University CBRN Symposium in 2014, the longest running CBRN conference in the UK. These occasions will also provide an opportunity to be advised on how current outputs might be tailored to be of maximum use to stakeholders. In organising our seminar we will also exploit our links to younger scholars - an increasingly important activity because the community of academics engaged in this area is suffering from demographic problems with many of the leaders nearing retirement.