To reduce the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among nations and non-state actors, the United States should de-emphasize such weapons in its own rhetoric and military planning, Chancellor Albert Carnesale, a specialist in foreign and defense policy matters, told approximately 1,000 people who gathered at Royce Hall for his Feb. 28 lecture.

"Weapons of mass destruction pose the greatest threat to the United States," said Carnesale, who helped negotiate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. "I'd like to see the war on terrorism also thought of as the war on weapons of mass destruction, because that's the fundamental threat."

The chancellor's lecture, "Rethinking National Security," analyzed the realignment of U.S. national security policy post-Sept. 11. Ironically, his talk was delayed 15 minutes because of a security situation. Some visitors had trouble reaching Royce when police closed Hilgard Avenue for 90 minutes to check out a suspicious package found on a Big Blue Bus at the turnaround. The package proved to be harmless.

While in the past the United States centered its foreign policy on one or two adversarial foreign powers, such as the former Soviet Union, Carnesale said, the focus of the war on terrorism is on non-state actors that have global reach, such as Al Qaeda.

Sept. 11 jolted the United States into recognizing that, although it is the world's most powerful nation, it is not invulnerable; it is not universally admired; there are many opposed to globalization and to what is perceived as unilateralism on the part of the United States; and that the American way of life can be seriously degraded by factors other than weapons of mass destruction, the chancellor said.

Advanced technological societies such as the United States are far more vulnerable to "weapons of mass disruption," Carnesale said, including cyberterrorism and attacks on communication systems.

"Nothing illustrates this better than anthrox in our postal system," Carnesale said. "A handful of deaths frightened millions of people, closed the U.S. House of Representatives and shifted the balance that we thought was appropriate between security and preservation of our civil liberties."

To reduce the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the United States should widen export controls and keep working to persuade other nations, including China and Iran, to adopt similar policies, he said. The United States should also push to have additional nations ratify arms control agreements such as the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And, while the United States "deplores" other countries' acquisition of such weapons, the chancellor stated that it was worth noting that the United States has 6,000 nuclear weapons deployed, and insists upon its right to test nuclear weapons, having rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

"It is hard to argue that others should have zero nuclear weapons, but the United States needs thousands of them," Carnesale said. "To be credible, the United States must reduce its own nuclear arsenal."

Further, creating a national missile defense does not resolve the problem posed by weapons of mass destruction, Carnesale said. While it might help defend against accidental or unauthorized launches from Russia, China or North Korea, it will make it less likely that Russia will reduce its nuclear arsenal, and would increase the chance that China will expand its nuclear missile arsenal, he said. And it would likely be irrelevant against terrorist groups that use means other than a long-range missile to deliver such weapons.

Carnesale, who holds dual appointments in the School of Public Policy and Social Research and in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, taught a post-Sept. 11 seminar on national security last fall and is teaching another this quarter. Carnesale said that his remarks were based, in part, on discussions he had with his students.

"They are the ones who always ask, 'Why does it have to be that way?' " he said.