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
Neil Thomas was a Master in Public Policy 2018 candidate at Harvard Kennedy School. Neil graduated from the University of Western Australia in 2014 with a first-class honors degree in political science, international relations, and economics — after taking two years out to learn Chinese at Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University. Following graduation, he worked as a Morrison Scholar and Research Project Officer at The Australian National University, where he managed the production of the Australia-China Joint Economic Report, built academic databases, and published scholarly essays and media articles. More recently, Neil spent time researching Chinese foreign policy and U.S.-China relations for the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing. At Harvard, Neil co-founded the MediaPIC and serves as a Strategy Editor at the Kennedy School Review. His research interests focus on Chinese studies, diplomatic history, media culture, and the politics of policymaking.
Last Updated: May 29, 2018, 4:23pm