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.”
Shivshankar Menon
Ambassador Shivshankar Menon is a Special Advisor at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership and a visiting professor at Ashoka University, India, and Chair of the Ashoka Centre for China Studies. He was previously National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Jan 2010-May 2014; Foreign Secretary of India, October 2006-July 2009; and has served as the Indian Ambassador or High Commissioner to China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Israel.
In 2016 he published Choices; Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy. His book on India and Asian Geopolitics; The Past, Present (Brookings Press USA, & Penguin Random House India) was released in April 2021.
He has been a Fisher Family Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and Richard Wilhelm Fellow at MIT in 2015. He was chosen one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2010.
He is also Chairman, Advisory Board, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, India; Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore; Member, Board of Trustees, International Crisis Group; and, a Distinguished Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute, New York.
Richard Verma
Rich Verma is the General Counsel and Head of Global Public Policy for Mastercard. In this role, he oversees the company's law and policy functions in the United States and around the world. Rich brings over 25 years of international experience across senior levels of business, law, diplomacy and the military. He is a member of the company's Management Committee.
Rich previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to India, where he led one of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions and championed historic progress in bilateral cooperation on defense, trade, and clean energy. He is a former Assistant Secretary of State and he also worked on Capitol Hill as the National Security Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader.
He practiced law for many years at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. and is the former Vice Chairman of The Asia Group, a leading international consulting firm. In addition, Rich is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and the recipient of a number of military awards and civilian decorations, including the Meritorious Service Medal and the State Department's Distinguished Service Award.
Rich is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a trustee of Lehigh University. He serves on a number of boards and commissions, including the T. Rowe Price corporate board and the National Endowment for Democracy board of directors.
Rich holds multiple degrees, including his doctorate (Ph.D.) from Georgetown University and his law degree (J.D.) from American University.