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.”
Currently, we are observing an almost unprecedented degradation of US-Russia relations. Unilateral sanctions are today’s preferred tools of statecraft in managing an ongoing crisis. Unfortunately, they do not reflect the current state of affairs of the international system and the global economy. Sanctions are being used as alternative to direct military confrontation between two nuclear superpowers and their application is further limited by the nature of their profound bilateralism, which neglects the reality of today’s world order and global challenges. The main purpose of this talk is an attempt to look into the future of US-Russia relations, beyond the existing crisis and the limited agenda, to envision the desired future of this relationship in 20 years.
Dr. Likhacheva has a PhD in International relations and works as a Deputy dean for Research at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs and Deputy Director of CCEIS at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. Her key area of expertise is international political economy with a particular focus on Economic Sanctions and Russian-Asian relations. She is an author of more than 50 papers, briefs and working papers published in Russia and abroad. Since 2016 she is also a head of Russian Organizing Committee of the Working Group for the Future of Russian-American relations – a joint project led by HSE and Harvard University since 2010.
