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 lecture by Christina Lassen, formerly Denmark’s Ambassador to Syria and to Jordan.
Biography: Ambassador Lassen, fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, comes to Harvard directly from Damascus, where she for the last three years has served as Denmark’s ambassador to Syria and to Jordan. Previous assignments include: Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Executive Secretariat; Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary of State; Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (Middle East and Transatlantic Affairs); Embassy Secretary for Political Affairs at the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Lassen has a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree (Business and International Relations) from Copenhagen Business School, While at Harvard, she will conduct research on the Arab uprisings, and their implications and consequences for relations between the Arab world and the EU/US.