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.”
Dr. Graham Allison, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense; Director, Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Author, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
Could China and the U.S. be headed towards war, or is there a way to avoid it? Graham Allison, former assistant secretary of defense, argues that if both the U.S. and China refuse to back down, a trade conflict, cyberattack or accident at sea could escalate into war.
Join us for a conversation with Graham Allison about how Thucydides’s Trap, the inevitable contention between a rising power and an established one, is still relevant today.
Location: 555 Post St., San Francisco
Time: 6:00 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. book signing