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 is a political-track U.S. Foreign Service Officer specializing in Chinese domestic politics and foreign policy, cross-Strait relations, and US foreign policy on Northeast Asia. Most recently, he was the American Institute in Taiwan’s (the de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan) acting spokesperson, implementing a strategic communications campaign to reaffirm America’s commitments to the island. He was also a fellow at the State Department’s intelligence bureau, where he assessed China’s relations with Japan, Russia, and North Korea. During his stints at the State Department, U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Environmental Protection Agency, and Baker Institute for Public Policy, he helped the United States communicate and cooperate with officials from China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam on issues such as territorial disputes and the environment. He also worked at the U.K. House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee to examine the British government’s performance on equality issues, such as its treatment of asylum seekers and LGBTQ+ persons. Aaron is a second-generation Asian American and has previously lived in Taiwan for ten years. He holds an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in economics, Asian studies, and policy studies from Rice University (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). He is fluent in Mandarin.
Last Updated: Jul 16, 2020, 5:17pm