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.”
Prof. Vipin Narang will discuss the dynamics and dangers of escalation in the context of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear arsenals.
Former MTA/ISP Fellow Vipin Narang is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at MIT. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government, Harvard University in May 2010. His dissertation project systematically explores the effect of nuclear postures in deterring conflict and develops a theory for their origins in regional nuclear powers; it was awarded Harvard's Edward M. Chase prize. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering with distinction from Stanford University and an M. Phil with Distinction in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied on a Marshall Scholarship.