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
Commander Allen is a 2022-23 National Security Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He graduated from the US Coast Guard Academy in 2002 and from the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College in 2014. His most recent operational assignment was commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast, homeported in Astoria, OR. Previous afloat assignments include commanding officer of cutters William Flores (Miami, FL) and Baranof (Manama, Bahrain), executive officer of cutters Waesche (Alameda, CA) and Tornado (Pascagoula, MS), and assistant operations officer of cutter Venturous (St. Petersburg, FL). Ashore, Allen served as a nautical science instructor at the US Coast Guard Academy and action officer in the Office of Counterterrorism and Defense Operations at Coast Guard Headquarters.
Last Updated: Aug 23, 2022, 10:56am