ABSTRACT
Introduction 3 Organizational Factors 5 General Ideological Factors: Are al-Qa‘ida’s Objectives Truly “Rational” or “Strategic”? 6 Jihadist Ideology and the Potential Employment of CBRN Weapons 27 Conclusion 37 Notes 38
One of the peculiarities of the literature on “WMD terrorism” is the disparity between the large amount of attention paid to terrorist capabilities and the relatively small amount of attention paid to terrorist motivations.5 As Bruce Hoffman has rightly noted, “the need for a better understanding of the motivations, thought processes, mindsets and historical consciousness of terrorists…is essential if the [terrorism] field is to grow in new and beneficial directions, retain its relevance, and provide insightful and thoughtful analysis…”6 Indeed, as Jerrold Post long ago emphasized, “absent a clear understanding of the adversary’s intentions, the strategies and tactics developed [to counter them] are based primarily on knowledge of terrorists [sic] technological capabilities and give insufficient weight to psychological motivations.”7 This same observation is likewise true with respect to the ideological motivations and operational objectives of different types and groups of terrorists.
