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.”
Panelists:
Joseph Bahout
Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Sciences Po Paris
Fred Hof
Senior Fellow, The Alantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East
Mona Yacoubian
Senior Advisor on the Middle East
Project Director, Pathways to Progress: Peace, Prosperity and Change in the Middle East
Meghan O’Sullivan (moderator)
Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School