Cyber Disorders: Rivalry and Conflict in a Global Information Age

International Security Program Seminar Series

The risks posed by the proliferation of cyber weapons are gaining wide recognition among security planners. Yet the general reaction of scholars of international relations has been to neglect the cyber peril owing to its technical novelties and intricacies. This attitude amounts to either one or both of two claims: the problem is not of sufficient scale to warrant close inspection, or it is not comprehensible to a non-technical observer. This seminar challenged both assertions. It made a case and presented a framework for the study of international relations in the cyber domain as well as assessed the transforming effects—or not—of the related technologies on patterns of rivalry and conflict in the international system.