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 panel discussion with Salim Tamari, Spring 2018 Shawwaf Visiting Professor, Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Birzeit University; Anat Biletski, Albert Schweitzer Professor of Philosophy, Quinnipiac University; and Robert Danin, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Fellow, Future Diplomacy Project, HKS.