For Nakasone, the lesson was clear. Cyber operations gave Putin, Xi, Kim, and the mullahs “new ways to mount continuous, nonviolent operations” that over time erode American power—“without reaching a threshold that triggers an armed response.” He warned that the result was that “shifts in the global distribution of power can now occur without armed conflict.” So the whole idea of sitting on our cyber weapons—holding them in reserve—was a prescription for American decline.
