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.”
In this Managing the Atom seminar, Dr. Alexei Arbatov will discuss strategic arms control and the recent extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between Russia and the United States.
Arbatov is the head of the Center for International Security at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
Arbatov is a former scholar in residence and the chair of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Nonproliferation Program. Formerly, he was a member of the State Duma, vice chairman of the Russian United Democratic Party (Yabloko), and deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee.
He is a member of numerous boards and councils, including the research council of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the governing board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, and the Russian Council for Foreign and Defense Policy.
Arbatov is author of several books and numerous articles and papers on issues of global security, strategic stability, disarmament, Russian military reform, and various current domestic and foreign political issues.