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.”
The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs will host a Directors’ Lunch with Thomas Schelling, former Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Professor at Maryland School of Public Affairs and winner of Nobel Prize for Economics, 2005 on Thursday, October 4th in the Belfer Center Library (L369).
Dr. Schelling was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Economics (shared with Robert Aumann) for "having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis."
After twenty years at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, Dr. Schelling moved to the Maryland School of Public Affairs. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1991, he was President of the American Economic Association, of which he is a Distinguished Fellow. He was the recipient of the Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy and the National Academy of Sciences award for Behavioral Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War. In addition to his academic credentials, Schelling served in the Economic Cooperation Administration in Europe, and has held positions in the White House and Executive Office of the President, and the RAND Corporation.
Dr. Schelling has published on military strategy and arms control, energy and environmental policy, climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, organized crime, foreign aid and international trade, conflict and bargaining theory, racial segregation and integration, the military draft, health policy, tobacco and drugs policy, and ethical issues in public policy and in business.
RSVP REQUIRED
This event is off the record.