About the Forum

The annual Yale Cyber Leadership Forum, Bridging the Divide: Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies, and U.S.-China Relations, will take place March 8-10, 2023. Bringing together an array of attorneys, technologists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and academics, this year’s Forum will explore how cyber challenges impact the broader technological and geopolitical competition that has emerged between the United States and China.

In-person attendance is limited to members of the Yale community and invited speakers, but portions of the Forum will be recorded for distribution afterward. To receive alerts of when the recordings will be available, be sure to follow us on social media and sign up for our email list.

A collaboration between Yale Law School’s Center for Global Legal Challenges, International Security Studies, and the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, the Forum is co-directed by Oona Hathaway and Ted Wittenstein, and features faculty across the university. In addition, Yale Law School and Jackson School students can attend the Forum in person for credit, engaging with speakers and writing reaction papers based on the sessions.

The year’s Forum will explore how cybersecurity challenges impact the global balance of power, drawing on expertise at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School and other centers of excellence on campus. Key areas of inquiry include:

  • Is the United States headed for – or already entangled – in a tech- “Cold War” with China, and if so, what lessons can America learn from its generational contest with the former Soviet Union?

  • What are the most significant challenges in U.S.-China relations today, and how do they manifest themselves in the cyber realm? How might trends in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies further amplify these tensions?

  • What, if anything, is distinctive or unique about how China projects state power and influence online?

  • What approaches to countering Chinese state-sponsored malicious cyber activity – across the full spectrum of diplomatic, law enforcement, economic, and military or intelligence options – have proven to be effective or ineffective, and why?

  • What is the role of the U.S. private sector, and what mechanisms can better strengthen public-private sector cybersecurity cooperation with respect to China?

  • Despite geopolitical competition and differing conceptions of cybersecurity and Internet governance, can the United States and China bridge the divide to foster common cyber norms of behavior while avoiding miscalculation, escalation, and inadvertent conflict?