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.”
A Discussion With:
GRAHAM ALLISON, Director, Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
PHILLIP HEYMANN, James Barr Ames Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Deputy U.S. Attorney General (1993-1994); Author, Terrorism, Freedom, and Security: Winning without War
ARNOLD HOWITT, Executive Director, Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government; Co-Editor, Countering Terrorism: Dimensions of Preparedness
JULIETTE KAYYEM, Faculty Affiliate, Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Co-Editor, First to Arrive: State and Local Responses to Terrorism
JESSICA STERN, Faculty Affiliate, Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Superterrorism Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Author, Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
JOSEPH S. NYE, JR. (Moderator), Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government