Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism

About this book

In WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND TERRORISM 2/e Dr. James Forest and Brigadier General (Retired) Russell Howard have collected original and previously published seminal articles and essays by scientists academics government officials and members of the nations security and intelligence communities. The editors and several of the authors write from practical field experience in nonproliferation and counterterrorism efforts. Others have had significant responsibility for developing government policies to address the threat of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. The contributors include many significant names in the field including Bruce Hoffman Ashton Carter William Perry Brian Jenkins Jonathan Tucker Charles Ferguson David Albright Gary Ackerman and Gregory Koblentz. Unit I of the book introduces key terms and addresses important strategic and policy debates. Authors explain how the new forms of terrorism affect the post-9/11 security environment and how weapons of mass destruction could give terrorists short-term asymmetric attack advantages over conventional military forces. Unit II offers detailed accounts of the characteristics availability and dangers of specific types of WMD along with five case studies that associate theory with practicean important feature of this volume. Unit III is focused on key dimensions of the WMD threat to critical infrastructure. Unit IV deals with past present and future national and international responses toand defenses againstthe threat of WMD terrorism. And in the final section of the volume authors provide several analytical frameworks for predicting future WMD threats and draw from historical events to identify lessons and strategies for the future. Appendices include U.S. national strategy documents on countering terrorism and standards for controlling WMD materials and technologies.