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.”
Dr. Mai Hassan will discuss the Sudanese uprising of 2018-2019 and its aftermath. Her talk will focus on Omer al-Bashir's autocratic regime, the events that precipitated the uprising, the uprising's trajectory, and important issues in the subsequent transition period. She will also address contemporary developments in Sudan, including the recent anti-revolutionary countercoup and ongoing mobilization.
This event will be moderated by MEI Faculty Director Tarek Masoud.
Mai Hassan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. Her first book — Regime Threats and State Solutions: Bureaucratic Loyalty and Embeddedness in Kenya — was selected as a Best Book of 2020 by Foreign Affairs, won the American Political Science Association’s 2021 Robert A Dahl Award, and was the recipient of the African Studies Association 2021 Bethwell A. Ogot Award. Her on-going research focuses on popular mobilization under autocratic repression through an empirical focus on Sudan’s 2018-19 popular uprising. Her research has been published by numerous outlets, including the American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, and the Journal of Politics. She earned her PhD in Government from Harvard University.