Unconventional Weapons and International Terrorism

This book addresses the critical importance of understanding innovation and decision-making between terrorist groups and unconventional weapons, and the difficulty in pinpointing what factors may drive violence escalation. It is useful for students of terrorism studies and nuclear proliferation. Introduction: Detecting CBRN terrorism signatures – challenges and new approaches Part I: The status of CBRN terrorism research 1. Defining knowledge gaps within CBRN terrorism research Part II: Al-Qaeda motivations/incentives for CBRN terrorism 2. WMD and the four dimensions of al-Qaeda 3. Al-Qaeda’s thinking on CBRN: A case study Part III: CBRN, capacity-building and proliferation 4. Indicators of chemical terrorism 5. Capacity-building and proliferation: Biological terrorism 6. Terrorism and potential biological warfare agents 7. Influence diagram analysis of nuclear and radiological terrorism Part IV: CRBN and terrorism: Dilemmas of prediction? 8. Approaching threat convergence from an intelligence perspective 9. Terrifying landscapes: Understanding motivations of non-state actors to acquire and/or use weapons of mass destruction 10. Conclusion