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.”
China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative will have major implications for the global energy sector and climate change. While China is increasingly promoting clean energy domestically, coal-fired power plants are a large part of China's overseas investment portfolio. There is increasing media scrutiny of coal power plants and their climate impacts. This presentation will bring empirical data and analysis to the debate about China's role in coal power around the world by examining the environmental performance of China's overseas coal plants and investigating the uniqueness of Chinese investment.
Cecilia Han Springer is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School in the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. Cecilia studies the economic and environmental impacts of energy policies in Asia from an interdisciplinary perspective. Previously, Cecilia spent time in China as a visiting researcher at Tsinghua University and a Fulbright research fellow in Tianjin. She has also consulted for Climate Advisers, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Global Efficiency Intelligence on industrial energy analysis. Cecilia holds a PhD and MS in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in environmental science from Brown University.
TBA