Join New York Times’ David E. Sanger for a Conversation on "The Perfect Weapon"
On Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30 pm, join Bennington College President Laura Walker and WAMC’s Joe Donahue as they speak with David E. Sanger, New York Times national security correspondent, about The Perfect Weapon, an HBO documentary special based on Sanger’s best-selling book.
This event is free, open to the public, and will take place virtually via Zoom. Register for the event by October 27 to join the event. You will also receive access to the documentary to watch ahead of the conversation.
“We are so pleased to welcome David Sanger to discuss his extraordinary reporting on this emerging threat, rivetingly explored through The Perfect Weapon,” said President Laura Walker. “This event is timely, as much of what Bennington students pursue today intersects with geopolitics, the state of democracies around the world, and the role of technology in our lives.”
The Perfect Weapon debuted on HBO on Friday, October 16 at 8:00 pm ET. Directed by John Maggio, the film explores the rise of cyber conflict as a primary way in which nations now compete with and sabotage one another. Cheap, invisible and devastatingly effective, cyber weapons are the present and future of geopolitical conflict—a short-of-war pathway to exercising power.
The Perfect Weapon draws on interviews with top military, intelligence and political officials for a comprehensive view of a world of new vulnerabilities, particularly as fear mounts over how cyberattacks and influence operations may affect the 2020 US election, vulnerable power grids, America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, and the global networks that are the backbone of private enterprise. The film also explores how the US government is struggling to defend itself from cyberattacks while simultaneously stockpiling and using the world's most powerful offensive cyber arsenal.
About David E. Sanger
David E. Sanger is a national security correspondent and a senior writer at The New York Times. In a 36-year reporting career for The New York Times, he has been on three teams that have won Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 2017 for international reporting. His newest book, The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age, examines the emergence of cyberconflict as the primary way large and small states are competing and undercutting each other, changing the nature of global power.