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.”
Ian J. Stewart is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies and runs Project Alpha at King's College London, a collection of projects that collectively work to understand and counter proliferation related trade. A former Managing the Atom/International Security Research Fellow, Stewart came to King's College London from the British Ministry of Defence, where he was an analyst working on issues related to non-proliferation and illicit trade. Before this, Ian held a variety of roles in the MOD including supporting the UK's nuclear deterrent and undertaking a placement in the British Embassy, Washington DC. In this Project on Managing the Atom Seminar, Stewart will present "Understanding and C ountering Illicit Trade."