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.”
Kevin Ryan
Director, Defense and Intelligence Project, Belfer Center;
Member, The US-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism
Jill Dougherty
Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars;
Distinguished Visiting Professional, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington
Molly McKew
Foreign Policy and Strategy Consultant;
Information Warfare Expert and Writer
Nicholas Burns (Moderator)
Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School