Albert Carnesale
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Chancellor Emeritus and Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Experience
Albert Carnesale is Chancellor Emeritus and Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was Chancellor of the University from July 1, 1997 through June 30, 2006, and now serves as Professor of Public Policy and of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. His research and teaching focus on public policy issues having substantial scientific and technological dimensions, and he is the author or co-author of six books and more than 100 articles on a wide range of subjects, including national security strategy, arms control, nuclear proliferation, the effects of technological change on foreign and defense policy, domestic and international energy issues, and higher education.
Carnesale chaired the National Academies Committees on NASA’s Strategic Direction, on America’s Climate Choices, on Nuclear Forensics, and on U.S. Conventional Prompt Global Strike; and he was a member of the Obama Administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Pacific Council on International Policy; and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and of the Advisory Board of the RAND Corporation’s Center for Global Risk and Security. He serves also on the Boards of Directors of Teradyne Inc., NanoPacific Holdings Inc., and Amicrobe, Inc.
Prior to joining UCLA, Carnesale was at Harvard for 23 years, serving as Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Provost of the University. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering (Cooper Union), a master's degree in mechanical engineering (Drexel University), and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering (North Carolina State University).
September 4, 1988
Defusing The Nuclear Menace
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
ARMS CONTROL has fallen off the nation's political radar in recent months. But it shouldn't. The world is as dangerous as ever.
U.S. and Soviet arsenals number over 50,000 nuclear weapons, most more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima; intercontinental ballistic missiles can deliver these destructive payloads in less than 30 minutes to any point on the globe.
May 3, 1988
Why Ratifying the INF Treaty Really Matters
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
The United States Senate should vote to ratify the INF Treaty - and it will. As in the committee hearings, debate on the floor focuses on the consequences of this treaty for national security. In the end, most members will agree with Sen. Sam Nunn's conclusion that the treaty makes a 'modest but useful contribution to NATO security.'
1987
"Does Strategic Defense Breed Offense?"
Occasional Paper
By Herbert York, Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Ashton B. Carter, Former Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities, George Rathjens and Stephen P. Rosen
Occasional Paper from the Center for Science and International Affairs
Summer 1986
The Owls' Agenda for Avoiding Nuclear War
Journal Article, Washington Quarterly
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
The debate over national security and arms control has focused primarily on weapons: more or fewer weapons, different kinds of weapons. During the 1984 presidential campaign, for example, President Ronald Reagan defended his administration's military buildup, the biggest in peacetime. Former Vice President Walter Mondale advocated a freeze on deploying new weapons. Numbers and types of arms have preoccupied governments and specialists on both the right and the left.
July 31, 1985
Of Hawks, Doves - and, Now, Owls
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Forty years ago, one bomb devastated Hiroshima. Today, there are more than 50,000 nuclear weapons, and a nuclear war could destroy civilization. Avoiding war has become a necessity. How? Hawks have had their say; doves, theirs. Now, listen to the owls.
April 13, 1983
"Moral Dilemmas and Nuclear Strategy"
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Paul Doty, Director Emeritus, Center for Science and International Affairs; Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus, Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Stanley Hoffmann, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security, Samuel Huntington, Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Scott Sagan, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1981-1982; Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
"Can nuclear strategy and morality be compatible....[and] can initiating the use of nuclear weapons ever be morally justified?"" asks Harvard University's Nuclear Study Group in a Christian Science Monitor op-ed released.
October 1976
"The Race To Control Nuclear Arms"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Foreign Affairs, issue 1, volume 55
By Paul Doty, Director Emeritus, Center for Science and International Affairs; Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry, Emeritus, Michael Nacht, Former Associate Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, 1973-1984 and Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In a 1976 article in Foreign Affairs, the Kennedy School's Albert Carnesale, Paul Doty and Michael Nacht argue that "As the nuclear age lengthens and the opportunity for viewing it in perspective grows, its essential features seem increasingly related to successive eight-year American presidential administrations. Measures to control nuclear weapons have been seriously considered in each of the first four postwar "octades," and there has been an acceleration in the number of agreements reached - most notably in limiting nuclear tests, slowing nuclear proliferation, restraining the quantitative growth of the Soviet and American nuclear arsenals, and restricting defenses against nuclear weapons."
New Nuclear Nations: Consequences for U.S. Policy
Book
By Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Robert D. Blackwill, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Defenses Against New Nuclear Threats
Book Chapter
By Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
1993
Introduction: Understanding the Problem
Book Chapter
By Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Robert D. Blackwill, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
in New Nuclear Nations: Consequences for U.S. Policy,
