This book fills a clear gap in the literature for a technically-focused book covering nuclear proliferation and related issues post-9/11. Using a concept-led approach which serves a broad readership, it provides detailed overview of nuclear weapons, nuclear proliferation and international nuclear policy. The author addresses topics including offensive and defensive missile systems, command and control, verification, weapon effects, and nuclear testing. A chronology of nuclear arms is presented including detailed discussion of the Cold War, proliferation, and arms control treaties. The book is tailored to courses on nuclear proliferation, and the general reader will also find it a fascinating introduction to the science and strategy behind international nuclear policy in the modern era.

“The greatest danger of another catastrophic attack in the United States will materialize if the world's most dangerous terrorists acquire the world's most dangerous weapons.” —The 9/11 Commission Report The bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism was established by the U.S. Congress to build on the work of the 9/11 Commission by assessing our nation's progress in preventing weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, and providing a roadmap to greater security with concrete recommendations for improvement. The Commission has interviewed over 200 experts inside and outside of government. They have met with counterterrorism and intelligence officials here at home and abroad who are working to stop proliferation and terrorism The Commission's report examines the government's current policies and programs, identifies gaps in our government's prevention strategy and recommends ways to close them. The threat of terrorist attacks in the United States and elsewhere is still very real. The world remians at risk There is more that can and must be done. Our security depends on it.

The very mention of nuclear terrorism is enough to rouse strong reactions, and understandably so, because it combines the most terrifying weapons and the most threatening of people in a single phrase. The possibility that terrorists could obtain and use nuclear weapons deserves careful analysis, but discussion has all too often been contaminated with exaggeration, even hysteria. For example, it has been claimed that nuclear terrorism poses an ‘existential threat’ to the United States. This Adelphi Paper develops a more measured analysis of the risk of terrorists detonating a true fission device. The problem is attacked from two perspectives: the considerable, possibly insurmountable, technical challenges involved in obtaining a functional nuclear weapon, whether ‘home-made’ or begged, borrowed or stolen from a state arsenal; and the question of the strategic, political and psychological motivations to ‘go nuclear’. The conclusions are that nuclear terrorism is a less significant threat than is commonly believed, and that, among terrorists, Muslim extremists are not the most likely to use nuclear weapons.

Many believe that terrorists could cause more deaths and destruction with nuclear weapons than by any other means. The United States and the world community have tried for decades to avoid that spectre through the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty of 1970, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-242), the Nunn-Lugar Co-operative Threat Reduction Program, and many other measures. Many have called the attention to the problem; websites with current resources include the Nuclear Control Institute, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the centre for Non-proliferation Studies. In the wake of the September 11 attack, the nuclear threat has taken a new urgency. This book addresses potential terrorist capabilities.

For more than 30 years Jenkins has been advising the military, government, and prestigious think tanks on the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Now he goes beyond what the experts know to examine how terrorists themselves think about such weapons.