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.”
Speaker: Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Middle East Initiative
This seminar considers intervention policies that can be characterized as half-measures: their stated goals do not match what they can be reasonably expected to achieve. The trajectory of U.S. policies on the Syrian civil war is scrutinized to develop the concept of half-measures and to understand how their effects compare to those of other policy options.
Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.