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
Aaron Arnold is an Associate with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. His work focuses on trade controls for preventing WMD proliferation. Prior to his current appointment, he spent nine years as a non-proliferation and counter-proliferation subject matter expert at the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Justice Department, where he specialized in WMD counter-proliferation investigations and operations, with an emphasis on threat finance and sanctions evasion. Aaron holds a PhD and MPP in public policy and national security from George Mason University and a BA in international relations from Virginia Tech.
Last Updated: Dec 2, 2019, 2:33pm