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
Risa Brooks is associate professor of political science at Marquette University. In addition to her oped, "Homegrown terrorism is not on the rise" (Boston Globe, April 27, 2013), she is the author of “Muslim Homegrown Terrorism: How Serious Is the Threat?” which appears in the Belfer Center journal International Security.
Last Updated: Nov 20, 2020, 10:33am