{"id":19026,"date":"2018-08-07T09:30:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T09:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/07\/in-contemporary-warfare-cyber-trumps-nukes\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:01:36","slug":"in-contemporary-warfare-cyber-trumps-nukes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/cyber\/2018\/08\/07\/in-contemporary-warfare-cyber-trumps-nukes\/","title":{"rendered":"In contemporary warfare, cyber trumps nukes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nuclear proliferation appears to weigh heavily on U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s mind. Standing next to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki last month, Trump said ominously<\/a> that it\u2019s \u201cprobably the most important thing that we can be working on.\u201d Since then, Trump has proposed dramatically to negotiate denuclearization with Iran \u2014 after threatening the country with \u201cconsequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before\u201d \u2014 and even floated the idea of a second meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un with the goal of dismantling Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For someone whose projection of power derives so intensely from online networks, Trump is surprisingly old-fashioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 1964 presidential campaign, President Lyndon Johnson aired a spot<\/a> deemed so controversial than it never ran a second time. As an innocent, young girl picked petals off a daisy in the park, her voice was drowned out slowly by a launch countdown. Then, narrating against the backdrop of a mushroom cloud, Johnson proclaimed: \u201cWe must either love each other, or we must die.\u201d His Republican opponent, Barry Goldwater \u2014 the implicit warmonger who was not even mentioned by name \u2014 lost by an overwhelming margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the more contemporary battlefield of cyberspace merited not one single mention in Trump’s remarks alongside Putin in Finland. Unless you count the infamous Democratic National Committee server, that is, which he referenced nine times. While Trump obsesses about politics, the U.S. is exposed to great danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing a direct comparison to 9\/11, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, has warned that America\u2019s \u201cdigital infrastructure \u2026 is literally under attack.\u201d He fingered Russia as the \u201cmost aggressive foreign actor\u201d and awarded dishonorable mentions to China, Iran and North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\t