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
Alyssa Resar is a Research Assistant at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She works on Applied History and international security, with a focus on East Asia and the history of grand strategy.
Prior to joining the Belfer Center, Resar graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in Government and East Asian Studies. While at Harvard, she was the Williams/Lodge International Government and Public Affairs Research Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Her senior thesis, which examined the intersections between regime type and military decision-making, won the Eric Firth Prize.
Last Updated: Aug 7, 2020, 3:43pm