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.”
J. Matthew McInnis is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the former Senior Expert for Iran at the US Central Command from 2010-2013. At AEI he focuses on Iran’s intentions, strategic culture, and military posture as well as Tehran’s foreign policies towards the US and throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. McInnis also works on broader US regional security issues in the Middle East and on the effectiveness of the US intelligence community. He is regularly called to give expert testimony before Congress and his public writing is frequently featured in The National Interest and Newsweek as well as The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, Fortune, CNN, Real Clear Defense, and other media. For more on J. Matthew McInnis, click here.