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.”
2 Experts
- Fellow
- Research Director, the Security and Global Health Project
Margaret Bourdeaux
Expertise:
- Faculty
- Board of Directors
- Member of the Board, Belfer Center
- Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security, Harvard Kennedy School
- Faculty Director, Homeland Security Project
- Faculty Affiliate, Middle East Initiative
Juliette Kayyem