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
John Michael Cassetta is a joint MBA/MPP candidate at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government. At the Belfer Center, he is an Allison Fellow. Previously, John Michael worked as a Graduate Intern in the East Asia office of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as an editor at The New York Times, and as a consultant in Deloitte Consulting’s strategy and operations practice focused on financial institutions, technology and media companies.
Last Updated: Jun 3, 2021, 9:22am