Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism: The Threat According to the Current Unclassified Literature

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism: The Threat According to the Current Unclassified Literature
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 47
Release: 2002
Genre:
ISBN:

The prospect of chemical, biological, radiological, and/or nuclear (CBRN) terrorism is recognized by the United States government as an acute security challenge. Particularly following the tragedy of September 11, 2001, but also for several years prior, senior U.S. officials and official government reports have underscored the likelihood, over time, of terrorist organizations coming into possession of such unconventional materials, and the prospect of their use against the United States homeland, U.S. forward-deployed forces, or U.S. friends and allies. Toward the end of the last century, this concern was heightened, among other events, by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo's 1995 use of sarin in the Tokyo subway. The combination of increasing availability of technology and expertise, a perceived mass-casualty motive structure for particular terrorist organizations, the impending end of a millennium, a spate of conventional attacks against U.S. assets World Trade Center, 1993; Oklahoma City Federal Building, 1995; American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, 1998; and the U.S.S. Cole, 2000 and both the widespread suspicion of terrorists seeking CBRN weapons and the actual sub-national employment of a chemical agent all contributed to this general assessment.

Combating Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism

Combating Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Terrorism
Author: Frank J. Cilluffo
Publisher: CSIS
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780892063895

The United States currently lacks a comprehensive strategy for countering the threat of terrorism involving nuclear, radiological, chemical, and-most glaringly -- biological weapons. Although federal, state, and local governments have made impressive strides to prepare for terrorism involving these weapons, the whole remains less than the sum of the parts. As a result, the United States is now at a crossroads. Although credit must be given where due, the time has come for a cold-eyed assessment and evaluation based on program reviews and other measures of effectiveness. This report offers such an assessment, providing a road map of near- and long-term priorities for senior federal officials to marshal federal, state, local, private sector, and nongovernmental resources for defending the U.S. homeland against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Terrorism
Author: Brecht Volders
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2016-03-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317395190

This volume aims to improve understanding of nuclear security and the prevention of nuclear terrorism. Nuclear terrorism is perceived as one of the most immediate and extreme threats to global security today. While the international community has made important progress in securing fissile material, there are still important steps to be made with nearly 2,000 metric tons of weapons-usable nuclear material spread around the globe. The volume addresses this complex phenomenon through an interdisciplinary approach: legal, criminal, technical, diplomatic, cultural, economic, and political. Despite this cross-disciplinary approach, however, the chapters are all linked by the overarching aim of enhancing knowledge of nuclear security and the prevention of nuclear terrorism. The volume aims to do this by investigating the different types of nuclear terrorism, and subsequently discussing the potential means to prevent these malicious acts. In addition, there is a discussion of the nuclear security regime, in general, and an important examination of both its strengths and weaknesses. In summary, the book aims to extend the societal and political debate about the threat of nuclear terrorism. This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, nuclear governance, terrorism studies, international organizations, and security studies in general.

Terrorist Organizations and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Terrorist Organizations and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Author: Alethia H. Cook
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2017-09-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442276630

Weapons of Mass Destruction are diverse and pose unique challenges to governments attempting to keep them out of the wrong hands and preparing to respond to an attack. This text analyzes Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons and terrorist groups with a known interest in them. It presents accessible information about the technical challenges posed by each type of weapon, assesses the threats, and reviews the US governmental responses. It provides structured CBRN case studies and allows for easy comparison of threats, challenges, and responses. The text combines weapons and policy information in one comprehensive and comparative resource for researchers and students interested in key issues in modern terrorism and international security.

Super Terrorism: Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear

Super Terrorism: Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear
Author: Yonah Alexander
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2021-10-25
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004480307

This timely book contains excerpts from authoritative testimony, speeches and reports of political leaders, members of Congress, and leading experts who lay out a roadmap for understanding the nation's growing concern and response to the threat of super terrorism. It highlights warnings on the domestic and international threat form reports of the Bremer Commission, Gilmore Commission, Hart-Rudman Commission, Baker-Cutler Report and the USS Cole Commission. The text features statements and assessments of Madeleine Albright, Ahmed Al-Fadl, Ken Alibek, Seth Carus, Bill Clinton, Anthony Cordesman, John Deutch, Louis Freeh, Donald Henderson, Joshua Lederberg, Sam Nunn, John Parachini, Janet Reno, George Tenet and others. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

The Changing Face of Terrorism

The Changing Face of Terrorism
Author: Benjamin Cole
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2010-12-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 085771886X

Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN), terrorism and the 'war on terror' are major features of international relations and global concern. Terrorist threats and actual violence have become increasingly dangerous and lethal since the 1970s. However, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 heralded a new era in terrorist action and were the culmination of a terror campaign against American targets world-wide. "The Changing Face of Terrorism" evaluates the continuing threat and counter-measures since 9/11 and into the 21st century. It is a sober and measured evaluation of the CBRN threat and argues that continuing terror attacks are inevitable and the 'war on terror' will be a continuing feature in international politics and military action. Benjamin Cole shows how effective counter-terrorist measures must be measured and based not only on effective police and military intelligence and action but on careful evaluation of the politics, motivations, scientific and technical abilities of groups - no terrorist group has made a nuclear device - and religious and personal motivation.

Terrorism And Global Security

Terrorism And Global Security
Author: Louis Rene Beres
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2019-07-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000314367

The enormous potential for destruction that lies latent in nuclear technology inevitably gives rise to the possibility of nuclear terrorism—the use of nuclear explosives or radioactivity by insurgent groups. Professor Beres considers the factors that might foster such terrorism, the forms it might take, and the probable consequences of each form. He then identifies a coherent strategy of counternuclear terrorism, one that embraces both technological and behavioral measures, that suggests policies for deterrence and situation management on both national and international levels, and that points toward a major refashioning of world order.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Terrorism
Author: Graham Allison
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2004-08-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1429945516

A leading strategist opens our eyes to the greatest terrorist threat of all-and how to prevent it before it's too late Americans in the twenty-first century are keenly aware of the many forms of terrorism: hijackings, biological attacks, chemical weapons. But rarely do we allow ourselves to face squarely the deadliest form of terrorism, because it is almost too scary to think about-a terrorist group exploding a nuclear device in an American city. In this urgent call to action, Graham Allison, one of America's leading experts on nuclear weapons and national security, presents the evidence for two provocative, compelling conclusions. First, if policy makers in Washington keep doing what they are currently doing about the threat, a nuclear terrorist attack on America is likely to occur in the next decade. And if one lengthens the time frame, a nuclear strike is inevitable. Second, the surprising and largely unrecognized good news is that nuclear terrorism is, in fact, preventable. In these pages, Allison offers an ambitious but feasible blueprint for eliminating the possibility of nuclear terrorist attacks. The United States once relied on the threat of mutually assured destruction to deter the Soviet Union from launching a nuclear strike. But in today's fragmented world, a new strategy is needed, especially with nuclear material vulnerable to theft or sale through black-market channels. The choice is ours: to grab this beast by the horns or to be impaled on those horns. We do not have the luxury of hoping the problem will go away, and Allison shows why.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Terrorism
Author: G. Cameron
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1999-04-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230599222

Will the twenty-first century see terrorist fingers on the nuclear trigger? How likely is it terrorists will obtain weapons of mass destruction? What factors would determine their decision to use them? Gavin Cameron assesses the causes for, and implications of, the escalating lethality of terrorism. The growing opportunities for nuclear proliferation, primarily arising from the collapse of the Soviet Union are explained. The book concludes that the organisational and psychological pressures within terrorist groups and the changing nature of political violence combined with the heightened danger of nuclear micro-proliferation have made mass-destructive terrorism the greatest non-traditional threat to international security in the world today.

The Nuclear Terrorism Threat

The Nuclear Terrorism Threat
Author: Brecht Volders
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2021-07-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000408728

This book examines the threat of a terrorist organisation constructing and detonating a nuclear bomb. It explores the role and impact of the organisational design of a terrorist organisation in implementing a nuclear terrorism plot. In order to do so, the work builds on the organisational analogy between an assumed nuclear terrorism scenario and four case studies as follows: the construction of the first atomic bombs at Los Alamos; South Africa’s Peaceful Nuclear Explosives (PNE) program; Aum Shinrikyo’s chemical-biological armament activities; and Al Qaeda’s implementation of the 9/11 attacks. Extrapolating insights from these case studies, this book introduces the idea of an effectiveness-efficiency trade-off. On the one hand, it will be argued that a more organic organisational design is likely to benefit the effective implementation of a nuclear terrorism project. On the other hand, this type of organic organisational design is also likely to simultaneously constitute an inefficient way for a terrorist organisation to guarantee its operational and organisational security. It follows, then, that the implementation of a nuclear terrorism plot via an organic organisational design is also likely to be an inefficient strategy for a terrorist organisation to achieve its strategic and political goals. This idea of an effectiveness-efficiency trade-off provides us with a tool to strengthen the comprehensive nature of future nuclear terrorism threat assessments and sheds new light on the ongoing debates within the nuclear terrorism literature. This book will be of particular interest to students of nuclear proliferation, terrorism studies, international organisations, and security studies in general.