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.”
Senior Research Fellow at the Project on Managing the Atom will present the seminar "Organizing Arms Control Discussions in the Middle East: Obstacles and Lessons from Past Experience" on Wednesday, October 19.
Jaakko Laajava was the Ambassador of Finland to the United States (1996-2001), Ambassador of Finland to the Court of St. James’ in London (2005-2010), Political Director (1993-1996), Under-Secretary of State (2001-2005 and 2010-2015), and Facilitator appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN for the conference on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction (2011-2015). He has degrees from Stockholm University and the University of Helsinki and I was CFIA Fellow at Harvard (1985-86).