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
Radoslaw (Radek) Sikorski was a Fisher Family Fellow (in residence in April 2018). His is a Distinguished Statesman at the CSIS and a Senior Advisor at the Eurasia Group. He was previously a senior figure in Polish politics, serving as speaker of Poland’s lower house, as foreign minister in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s cabinet from (2007 - 2014) and as defense minister in (2005 – 2007). He also held earlier positions in government, including as deputy minister of national defense in 1992 and as deputy minister of foreign affairs from 1998-2001. With Carl Bildt, the former Prime Minister of Sweden, he is seen as one of the principle architects of the EU Eastern Partnership Policy. In his early career, Sikorski was a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola.
Last Updated: Jan 14, 2020, 1:31pm