There is a widely held belief in the imminent probability of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons of mass destruction being used by terrorists against civilian targets. This edited volume critically assesses the suggestion that one safeguard against this possibility would be to strengthen existing international prohibitions against state- level acquisition of such weapons.
A glimpse of the possible potential of terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction has been seen through the actions of the Tokyo Aum group, and through the use of chlorine by insurgents in Iraq. However, the extent of the real threat posed is as yet unclear, and safeguarding against it in developing countries will not be easy. This book assembles specialists in each category of WMD in order to examine the potential of expanding the three ‘classical’ arms control treaties in order to combat the threat posed by smaller terrorist groups, and draws conclusions as to the strengths and weaknesses of this suggestion.
Author(s): Ian Bellany
Series: Routledge Global Security Studies
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 257
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Contributors......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
Part I: General......Page 22
1 Material dangers......Page 24
2 Manufacturing the means of apocalypse: Aum Shinrikyo and the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction......Page 64
Part II: Chemical and biological......Page 92
3 Chemical and biological terrorism and multilateral conventions......Page 94
4 The Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention: Confronting the threat of international terrorism......Page 127
5 The status of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in relation to the prevention of bioterrorism......Page 169
6 Verification under the Chemical Weapons Convention......Page 191
Part III: Nuclear......Page 210
7 The diversion of nuclear materials for terrorist use......Page 212
8 Arms control, game theory and the twenty-first century......Page 236
Index......Page 253
