Nuclear Terrorism Threat

<p>This book examines the threat of a terrorist organisation constructing and detonating a nuclear bomb.</p><p>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.</p><p>This book will be of particular interest to students of nuclear proliferation terrorism studies international organisations and security studies in general.</p>