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
Ryan Ellis writes and researches on topics related to cybersecurity, infrastructure politics, homeland security, and communication law and policy. Prior to joining the Belfer Center, Ryan was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and served as a Project Manager at the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). He holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of California, San Diego.
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Contact
Email: ryan_ellis@hks.harvard.edu