by Claudia Segre
THE BLOGGERS’ CORNER. Technology alone will not stop wars. However, when made accessible to all, it can create that network of interests, knowledge, and opportunities that makes peace not only possible, but ‘beneficial’ to all parties.
3 July 2026 at 15:58
There were plenty of images from the tenth anniversary of VivaTech in mid-June in Paris, which – more than ever this year – attracted an extraordinary number of visitors, over 140,000, and offered a vivid picture of a kaleidoscopic yet human-centred technological future.
And whilst the Middle East continued to be portrayed almost exclusively through images of war, something different was taking shape at Europe’s leading innovation event: a place where entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and start-ups from the United States, Bahrain, France, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Syria, and Morocco spoke the same language. Not the language of traditional diplomacy, but that of innovation through the Abraham Accords.
Indeed, the image that gave me the most food for thought was that of the opening of the ‘Abraham in Tech’ pavilion, which was not simply one of the many initiatives hosted by the event. Rather, it seemed to signal that the Abraham Accords, six years after their signing, are entering a second phase: less political, perhaps, but more concrete. A phase in which cooperation is driven by dialogue, research, technology, investment, and economic development.
What made this moment even more significant was the presence of Chemi Peres, son of Shimon Peres and now president of the Peres Centre for Peace and Innovation. Ten years after his father’s death, his participation felt almost like a passing of the baton. For Shimon Peres’s insight remains remarkably relevant today: peace is not built solely through political agreements, but by creating shared opportunities for growth, employment, research, and innovation.
At a time when conflict tends to dominate the region’s narrative, the ‘Abraham in Tech’ pavilion offered a different perspective. Artificial intelligence, digital health, water tech, agritech, climate tech, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and finance for innovation have become the common language through which countries that, until a few years ago, had no official relations are seeking to build new forms of cooperation.
This vision is also backed up by figures that are worth noting. Twenty-four start-ups from the platform were present in Paris – fifteen from Israel, six from the UAE, and three from Morocco – but the most interesting figure relates to investment. In just one year, the volume of trade has risen from an initial 600 ml of US dollars to over 4 billion US dollars today, exceeding the 3 billion target set for the first five years, and private capital allocated to projects involving the Abraham Accords countries is also growing, having risen from 35 to 186 million dollars between 2024 and 2025. A more than five-fold increase in a single year – a figure that is hard to ignore in such an unstable international context.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect concerns the economic resilience of the Accords themselves. Many analyses agree that one of the strategic objectives of the brutal attack on civilians on 7 October was to halt the normalisation process between Israel and the Arab world, particularly the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia. Politically, the process has inevitably slowed down, only to resume with greater vigour. Economically, the network built up over previous years has proved more resilient than expected. Trade relations have never been interrupted; investments have continued, often in more discreet but no less effective forms.
It is here that a concept is emerging which is set to become increasingly central to international relations: Tech Diplomacy. For decades, we have spoken of trade, energy, and financial diplomacy. Today, a fourth dimension is emerging: the technological one. Those developing artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, water technologies, digital health, or energy transition inevitably build long-term relationships. And when industrial supply chains, investments, and research are shared, political dialogue also finds a more solid foundation.
The Abraham Accords seem to have recognised this transformation before many others. Israel offers one of the world’s most advanced ecosystems for research and development, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. The United Arab Emirates offers capital, infrastructure, the ability to attract global investment, and a long-term strategy for innovation. Morocco serves as a natural bridge to the African continent and the Mediterranean. Together, they shape an economic landscape in which complementarity and interdependence take precedence over competition.
The big challenges of our time (food security, water management, health, climate adaptation, the energy transition) know no political boundaries. Collaborating on these issues yields immediate economic benefits, but above all, it builds mutual trust: the most valuable asset for any peace process.
Shimon Peres often said that ‘optimism is a moral duty’. This was not a call for naivety, but for responsibility. He understood that politics, on its own, is not enough unless it is accompanied by the building of shared interests. Businesses, universities, research centres, investors, and innovators can help to create that network of relationships that makes peace not just desirable, but also beneficial.
Returning from Paris, I wondered whether, at a time when the news seems to focus exclusively on conflicts, we ought not to pay greater attention to reporting on what continues to unite us. After all, peace does not come about suddenly with the signing of a treaty. It is built slowly, through economic relations, mutual trust, shared research, investment, and collaboration.
Perhaps this is precisely Shimon Peres’s most relevant lesson today. Technology, on its own, will not stop wars. But when it is open to all, it can create that network of interests, knowledge, and opportunities that makes peace not only possible, but ‘beneficial’ to all parties. When young entrepreneurs, researchers, and innovators from different countries begin to shape the future together, it becomes much harder to revert to viewing one another merely as adversaries. This, ultimately, is the true strength of Tech Diplomacy: transforming technological cooperation into an infrastructure for peace, capable of enduring even when politics is going through its most difficult periods.
