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.”
Chen Zak, Senior Research Associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies will present an MTA seminar entitled "The role of civil society in promoting a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East" on Friday April 1, at 2pm in the Belfer Center library.
Because of the unique political and geo-strategic circumstances of the Middle East, civil society in the region has had more than 15 years of firsthand experience in dealing with arms control and nonproliferation issues. In fact, civil society meetings have been the only fora for regular regional dialogue on arms control and nonproliferation issues since 1995. The objective of the presentation is to analyze past, present and future civil society role in promoting the establishment of the Middle East as a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone.