3 Items

Paper

US-Russian Contention in Cyberspace

| June 2021

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.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, third right front, and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, fourth right front, stand in front of a bridge that was destroyed by shelling during the battle for Slovyansk in summer 2014, in Seleznivka village, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016.

Stringer/Photo via AP

Analysis & Opinions - Russia Matters

European Security Reform Holds Key to Breaking Stalemate in Ukraine

| Oct. 27, 2016

"To some it might seem that the devil is in the details of the February 2015 agreement, but, in my view, the heart of the impasse lies in the bigger picture: I believe that the primary reason the signatories to Minsk-2 keep locking horns over the fine print is that none of them—not Ukraine, not Russia, not the West—can be certain that their real minimal requirements for security will be met."