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.”
Please join the Intelligence Project for a lunch seminar with David H. Petraeus, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
David H. Petraeus is a retired four-star Army general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to various business and academic pursuits, he has been a non-resident senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs since 2013, working with former Center Director Graham Allison and Kennedy School students to explore renewed U.S. and North American competitiveness, strategic leadership, and a variety of international security issues.
Petraeus served as CIA director from September 2011 to November 2012. Prior to that, he spent 37 years in the Army, culminating his career with six consecutive commands as a general officer, five of which were in combat, including roles as commander of U.S. and international military forces in Afghanistan, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), and commanding general of the multi-national force in Iraq during the surge.
