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 conversation with Rex Brynen, Professor, Department of Political Science, McGill University.
This event is co-sponsored by the Middle East Forum, Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
About Rex Brynen:
Rex Brynen is a Professor of Political Science at McGill University, and coordinator of Palestinian Refugee ResearchNet (www.prrn.org). He received his B.A. from the University of Victoria and his M.A. and Ph.D. the University of Calgary, and worked on the Middle East peace process as a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1994-95. He is author of Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Westview, 1990), and editor or coeditor of Echoes of the Intifada (Westview, 1991), The Many Faces of National Security in the Arab World (Macmillan 1993), and Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996 and 1998).