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
Former Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom/Science, Technolog, and Public Policy Program, 2002-2006; Former Research Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, 1999-2002
Current Affiliation: Research Associate, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Last Updated: Jan 24, 2017, 8:50am