Homework Response

States and terrorist groups have long had Deadly relationships (Byman, 2012).  Over the years many terrorist groups were backed by governments like Iran backing the Lebanese Hizballah or the bizarre connections we would not think of like Libya backing the Provisional Irish Republic Army and the Damascus links to the Japanese Red Army.  It is extremely difficult for small terrorist groups to obtain the technology of nuclear weapons compared to other WMDs.  Even countries like North Korea and Iraq have found it difficult not only to acquire the technology but the financial ability to get such weapons.  However, with the fall of the Soviet Union these materials have become more readily available. 

There are many issues going on in the world in regards to weapons and nuclear weapons. From North Korea start testing missiles again, Iran escalating from attacking tankers in the Strait of Hormuz to rioting outside our embassy in Iraq as well as launching missiles killing US contractors, we cannot completely put the idea of a nuclear or radioactive weapon getting into the wrong hands here at home or abroad.  Preventing nuclear war incorporates blocking a terrorist group such as Al-Qaeda from receiving materials to create nuclear weapons.  Currently, there are 26 nuclear weapons states (Litwack, 2016).  The Obama administration held a series of four Nuclear Security Summits in 2015.  These summits reduced the number of countries with weapons-usable nuclear weapons from 32 to 24 (Litwack, 2016).  Any nation that supported or enabled terrorist groups with nuclear technology would be held accountable and punished.  Initiated by President Bush in 2006 after North Korea’s initial nuclear testing, any support towards terrorist organization would be retaliated against.  Although the specific type of retaliation was not addressed, the message was clear.  Also, earlier this year there was a report of several Iranians that were arrested in Honduras that planned to make their way to the U.S. border along with several others from Yemen and Somalia.  This could be one way of trying to smuggle parts of a radioactive device or plans for an attack once they arrived here.

With the Safe Ports Act of 2006 and the use of technology for detecting radiation and x-ray devices on containers coming into and out of ports has made it harder to move these weapons.  This makes the use of a nuclear weapon more difficult unless it is launched via missile but the but building a homemade radiological or other WMD would be easier than transporting one.  Having a depth in defense or layered approach to security and well trained first responders are important to deterring and mitigating an incident.  This includes sharing information between local, state, and federal agencies as well as training exercises that include all the agencies and resource that would handle this type of incident. References

Byman, D. (2012). Deadly Connections. New York: Cambridge Universal Press.

Cragin, K., & Daly, K. A. (2004). The Dynamic Terrorist Threat. Arlington: Rand.

Litwack, Robert.  Deterring Nuclear Terrorism.  Wilson Center.  October 2016.  Retrieved from: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/deterring_nuclear_terrorism_robert_litwak.pdf

Maurer, S. M. (2009). WMD Terrorism Science and Policy Choices. Cambridge: The MIT Press.