The Johnson Center for American Diplomacy and the Jackson Institute will host their annual conference on April 6th and 7th, bringing together leading foreign policy experts for discussions on cybersecurity, in particular cyberwarfare, and its effects on diplomacy.
The conference also seeks to address how technological developments especially in the realm of A.I. will affect how states conduct cyber operations. Yale President Peter Salovey will kick off the conference with an introduction, along with a keynote address by Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The keynote will be followed by a discussion with Henry Kissinger, for whom the annual conference is named. Finally, a second discussion about leadership and strategy in the realm of cybersecurity with former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and moderated by John Gaddis will close out the day on Friday. Saturday will feature several small panels in the morning with guests such as Jared Cohen the CEO of Jigsaw, Google’s experimental tech company, and Lieutenant General William Mayville of the U.S. Cyber Command. In the afternoon the conference will close with a conversation between Henry Kissinger and John Kerry on statecraft in the 21st century.
This conference seeks to answer the question of how international norms can be established regarding states actions in cyberspace. Despite the rapidly changing nature of the technologies used to conduct attacks and espionage in cyberspace, perhaps systems of deterrence or even mutually assured destruction can set the groundwork for commonly agreed to practices, guidelines, and laws restraining the use of cyberweapons.
At the very least, current and future leaders need to consider how to conduct diplomacy and statecraft in a world in which key pieces of national infrastructure and even public opinion can be attacked and influenced through the computer systems they rely on.