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
Sitara Noor worked as a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS), Islamabad, Pakistan (2019-2022). Previously, Noor was a Research Fellow at the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) in Vienna, Austria (2016-17). She also worked at the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority as an International Relations Analyst (2008-15). She was an adjunct faculty at the National University of Modern Languages, the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Quaid-i-Azam University, the Foreign Services Academy of Pakistan, and the Information Services Academy of Pakistan.
She was also a South Asian Voices Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Centre, Washington, D.C. (2019-20), Visiting Fellow at Sandia National labs (2019 & 2013) and James Martin Center for Nonproliferation, Monterey, California (2013). She is serving as the Country Coordinator for the University of Gothenburg project “Variety of Democracy” since 2012. She regularly writes on nuclear and security issues at various national and international platforms including Aljazeera, The News, The National Interest, The Diplomat, South Asian Voices/ Stimson Center among others
Last Updated: Sep 19, 2023, 1:18amAwards
Contact
Email: sitaranoor@hks.harvard.edu