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
Dr. David W. Kearn, Jr. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government & Politics at St. John's University in Queens, New York. His research and teaching interests include deterrence and nuclear strategy, arms racing and arms control, military innovation, and U.S. foreign and defense policy. He has also served as Strategic Advisor for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Office of the Secretary of Defense – Policy, and he has been a Nuclear Security Research Fellow at the RAND Corporation.
His latest book, Reassessing U.S. Nuclear Strategy was published by Cambria Press in 2019. Dr. Kearn received his B.A. from Amherst College, a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.
Last Updated: Sep 14, 2023, 4:44pmAwards
Contact
Email: dwkearn@hks.harvard.edu
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