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
Sarah Mackie is a former postdoctoral research fellow at the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative. She holds a law degree from the University of Cambridge and an LLM in environmental law from Newcastle University. A qualified lawyer in England and Wales, she has worked as a Judicial Assistant for the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
Dr. Mackie recently completed a PhD on comparative environmental law in the Arctic, with a particular focus on endangered species protection across Arctic jurisdictions. This research was conducted at a number of Arctic and other institutions including Newcastle University, Harvard Law School, Ilisimatusarfik (Greenland), the Arctic Centre (University of Lapland, Finland) and the KG Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea (University of Tromso, Norway).
Dr. Mackie has published a number of journal articles, including in the Harvard Environmental Law Review; authored a chapter of a book on environmental security in the Arctic Barents Region; and has presented at the Arctic Circle Assembly (Iceland) and at the Polar Law Symposium (Finland and Norway). Her current research explores issues of endangered species protection law in the Arctic nations and the Arctic Ocean.
Last Updated: Feb 1, 2022, 9:24am