'Dissuasion' campaign needed against WMD.

• Author: Fein, Geoff S.
• Position: Security Beat - Brief Article

Speaking to a gathering of military and defense industry representatives, Bill Schneider, director of the Defense Science Board, said the nation must focus on dissuading potential enemies from using weapons of mass destruction. That includes having an active missile defense capability.

The ability to intercept missiles not only in all phases of trajectory, but even before launching could be enough to dissuade some nations that they may never get the chance to use their weapons of mass destruction.

"So when a nation is contemplating the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction as an instrument of its foreign policy, it faces not only conditional risk of retaliation, but it may never get to use its weapons of mass destruction," Schneider said.

The threat of cruise missile attacks also must be deterred, Schneider said.

"We have been concerned with the cruise missile problem from the outset. One consequence of having effective missile...