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.”
Erin York explores competing conceptions of politics under autocracy, examining the existence of both faux-democratic institutions as well as historical networks of patronage in the Moroccan context. She provides systematic evidence that institutional systems of horizontal accountability help to level the playing field, creating opportunities for political outsiders to compete for support through by the book activity. But there are limits to this mechanism of political action: the regime’s control of the executive and, in particular, the presence of technocrat appointees weaken its effectiveness.
