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
Jason “Booj” Begley was born and educated in Sydney, joining the Royal Australian Air Force through the Australian Defence Force Academy in 1991 and completing a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Politics in 1994. He completed Navigator training in 1996 then began a 21-year flying career on P-3C Orion variants, deploying for operations in support East Timor, Qatar and the Philippines. Jason has had a number of command and staff appointments, the most recent of which were Commanding Officer of 10 Squadron, followed by Director of Joint Effects at Headquarters Joint Operations Command where he worked primarily in the fields of electronic warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, offensive cyber and information operations. He holds a master’s degree in Military Studies from the Australian Command and Staff College from which he received the Chief of Air Force prize in 2012 and his primary research interest is information operations in the grey zone.
Last Updated: Apr 20, 2020, 10:16am