The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
China and the United States are playing a game straight from the history books. When a dominant world power is threatened by a rising country, more times than not the outcome is war. But even with a growing trade battle and a belligerent North Korea on the border, war is not an inevitable outcome.
Graham Allison, Director of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and author of Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?, will join The Atlantic’s Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to explore the US-China relationship and see how war in East Asia can be avoided.
5:30 pm ET Cocktail Reception
6:00 pm ET Program Begins
7:00 pm ET Program Concludes + Book Signing
The Watergate
8th Floor
600 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
For more information and to RSVP, please contact Stacey Berger at sberger@theatlantic.com