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.”
Biography
Sebastian Rosato is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the International Security Center at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also a fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Rosato is the author of Europe United: Power Politics and the Making of the European Community (Cornell University Press, 2011), and Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict (Yale University Press, 2021). He has also published scholarly articles in several journals, including the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, International Security, Perspectives on Politics, and Security Studies.
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