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.”
Speaker
Sarah Ladislaw is a Managing Director at RMI, where she leads the U.S. Program. She also works on other global initiatives like the Mission Possible Partnership to reduce industrial-sector emissions and supports the development of green banks.
Sarah was previously senior vice president and director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she led the think tank’s work in energy policy, geopolitics, and technology analysis. She spearheaded new work at CSIS on climate change and foreign policy, deep decarbonization, and just transitions.
Before CSIS, Sarah worked in the Office of the Americas in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy and International Affairs, where she covered a range of economic, political, and energy issues in the Western Hemisphere. In addition, she spent a short time working at Statoil as its senior director for international affairs in the Washington office.
She is a member of the Strategic Advisory Council for Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Initiative and the University of California, Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies Board of Advisors.
