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
Charli Carpenter is an International Security Program Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Director of Human Security Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative focused on science in the human interest. Her teaching and research interests include the international law and human security, protection of civilians, laws of war, humanitarian affairs, humanitarian disarmament, global advocacy networks, political violence, and the role of pop culture in global security. She has published three books and numerous journal articles, has served as a consultant for the United Nations, State Department, Department of Defense, and human rights NGO community and regularly contributes to Foreign Policy, World Politics Review, and Foreign Affairs.
Last Updated: Nov 16, 2021, 6:37pmAwards
Contact
Email: charlicarpenter@hks.harvard.edu
Mailing Address:
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Mailbox 134
Cambridge, Massachusetts