Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Joseph Nye says 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. While this makes negotiating cyber arms-control treaties problematic, it does not make diplomacy impossible.

Bruce Schneier describes the methods and success of authoritarian governments' internet censorship.

Bruce Schneier discusses security threats and the shortage of security regulations.

"The partial budget blueprint released by the White House recently will put U.S. leadership in science and technology at serious risk if Congress goes along. In addition to the obvious damage that would result from the proposed $5.8 billion cut at NIH, the $2 billion cut in applied energy R&D, the $900 million cut in DOE’s Office of Science, the abolition of ARPA-E, and the research cuts at NOAA and EPA, a less immediately obvious potential casualty would be U.S. scientific cooperation with a wide variety of other countries on a wide variety of topics."

Russian cyber operations against the United States aim to both collect information and develop offensive capabilities against future targets. Washington must strengthen its defenses in response.

"But what about deterring operations that are not equivalent to an armed attack? There are grey areas in which important targets, say, a free political process, are not strategically vital in the same way as the electrical grid or the financial system. Destroying the latter two could damage lives and property; interference with the former threatens deeply held political values."