A lesson in cyber spying vs. cyber attack
So far the the ‘Solar Winds’ hack has added up to espionage, not sabotage. Let’s be careful how we respond.
Anatol Lieven is a professor in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is also a visiting professor in the War Studies Department of King’s College London, a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC, and a member of the Valdai discussion club in Russia.
Anatol Lieven’s latest book, “Climate Change and the Nation State,” is published in the Spring of 2020 by Penguin in the U.K. and Oxford University Press in the U.S.
He worked for 12 years as a British journalist in South Asia, the former USSR, and Eastern Europe. His areas of expertise include Islamist militancy and insurgency; U.S. political culture and global strategy; the countries of the former Soviet Union; South Asia and Afghanistan; and the politics of climate change. He has commented frequently on current affairs for the Financial Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest.
His book “Pakistan: A Hard Country” was published in paperback in April 2012 by Penguin in the U.K. and Australia, and Basic Books in the United States. An updated new edition of his book “America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism” was published by Oxford University Press in September 2012.
So far the the ‘Solar Winds’ hack has added up to espionage, not sabotage. Let’s be careful how we respond.
Realists know that understanding what Russia and China will risk and why is critical to our policies going forward.
A series of critical blunders over the last few decades have exposed many of the U.S.’s weaknesses.