The nuclear dimension

Abstract

In the light of continued nuclear proliferation and terrorist threats, the feasibility of terrorist organizations gaining access to weapons of mass destruction has to be analyzed anew and in depth. Although guerrillas and terrorist have more or less refrained from nuclear weaponry, export controls on nuclear technology (not only on behalf of the dissolution of the former Soviet Union) need to be enforced on a larger scale, and nuclear reactor safety has to be guaranteed.

The objective of this paper is to outline the feasibility and probability of terrorists gaining access to and using nuclear weapons (biological or chemical weapons shall merely be touched on) in favour of achieving their political or other aims. Since this topic is a very specific one, literature is rather limited in comparison to other themes related to terrorism. This is to say that the paper is mainly based on books, essays and articles published in the late 1970s and early 1980s when nuclear terrorism was broadly discussed. The author, however, has tried to analyse and circumscribe more recent developments as well even though material was difficult to find.

The paper does not claim to have highlighted every single point of interest, rather it wants to give the reader a brief overview on the range and consequences of nuclear terrorism in particular and its implications on the success of terrorist organisations within the international system in general. Furthermore it serves as a statement that nuclear safety in terms of preventing nuclear attacks and nuclear theft on the one hand, and the containment of nuclear proliferation as a means of minimizing the possibility for terrorist organisations and state‐regimes gaining technological material on the other hand, deserve the utmost attention and serious countermeasures.