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
Izran Salleh was a Belfer Center International and Global Affairs (BIGA) student fellow and a Master in Public Policy 2017 candidate at Harvard Kennedy School. His interests are in geopolitics of energy and international security.
Salleh spent the Summer of 2016 as a Research Associate to the Minister of Defence of Malaysia working on Malaysian defense policy in the South China Sea. He has also undertaken a policy research initiative in counter-terrorism strategies in the Sulu Seas.
Before enrolling in Harvard Kennedy School, Salleh founded a political risk-consulting firm that provided research and advisory services to energy firms on the Eurasian energy market. He has 10 years of business experience and operated in Kazakhstan and Malaysia.
After Harvard Kennedy School, Salleh plans to pursue a career in political consulting in the energy and defense sectors. He is fluent in English and Malay, and conversant in Russian and Indonesian.
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