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.”
Harvard University Professor of Ukrainian History, Serhii Plokhii, joined Belfer Center Director of Defense & Intelligence Projects BG Kevin Ryan (US Army retired), and Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow Eugene B. Kogan in a conversation about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, moderated by R. Nicholas Burns, The Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations. The panelists considered the current standoff from the perspectives of Russia, the United States, and the international community and made predictions about future developments.