ABSTRACT
The prospects of politically violent nonstate actors utilizing chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapons has captured the imaginations of not only public officials and the news media, but also a sizeable group of scholars who have sought to better define and characterize this apparent threat. Except for a few alarmist examples, most of the scholarship on CBRN use by terrorist groups has endeavored to replace anecdote and sensationalism with analytical consideration of both the motivations and capabilities required for nonstate regime opponents to succeed in brandishing such fearful arsenals (Ferguson et al. 2004; Palfy 2003: 82, 87; Cameron 2000: 164, 167, 169; Roberts 1997).
