ABSTRACT
The threat of terrorism with non-conventional chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons has acquired a higher priority in security policies worldwide since the end of the Cold War. Long-suppressed conflicts have flared into open wars. Most of them have raged with few bounds within state borders, and involved insurgents and irregular armed forces, as well as terrorist and criminal entities. In this fast-moving security environment analysts began to reconsider the objectives and tools of terrorism. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a steady increase of terrorist incidents, but when the number of attacks declined again, their lethality rose sharply. Two dimensions immediately came to the fore in their arguments: the exploitation by terrorists of technological innovation, and the intent to maximise indiscriminate death and injury. At this intersection of means and motivation lies the nightmare of a cataclysmic terrorist strike causing uncountable casualties and bringing an advanced open society to its knees.
