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.”
Biography
Trevor Johnston was an associate at the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative and a former postdoctoral research fellow. He is currently the Associate Social Scientist, Defense and Political Sciences Department, RAND Corporation. Trevor studies the political economy of authoritarianism and conflict in the Middle East. Focusing on the Arabian Gulf, his work explores the welfare of migrant populations and their access to basic goods and services. He is broadly interested in the effects of economic and immigration policies on conflict dynamics across authoritarian regimes. Trevor holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.
Last Updated: