Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Terrorism - Essay ExampleSince its inception, the thermonuclear bomb has been one of the major threats hanging over the humanity. With the rapid escalation of terrorist movements, the threat of nuclear attacks is comely even more probable. Despite the growing availability of nuclear materials, the risks of actual nuclear attacks be still minor, simply because nuclear terrorism is extremely arduous to accomplish (Ferguson & Potter, n.d.). The easiest are those acts which result in the least damaging consequences (Ferguson & Potter, n.d.). The problem with nuclear terrorism is not in the availability and accessibility of nuclear materials in todays globalized world, getting nuclear materials for a radioactive bomb is not difficult. The main problem is in that creating such a device requires civilise technical skills (Ferguson & Potter, n.d.). Building and launching an improvised nuclear device is much more difficult than creating and using a radiological dispersal device (Ferguson & Potter, n.d.). These difficulties, however, do not mean that the probability of nuclear terrorism is zero. As of today, nuclear bombs are the high end of plausibility of what terrorist groups could accomplish (Farber, 2010). The growing insecurity of nuclear materials makes the risks of nuclear attacks even higher. The lack of a comprehensive nuclear terrorism strategy in the U.S. further complicates the situation (Ferguson & Potter, n.d.). Yet, a small group of batch who have never dealt with nuclear weapons could easily make a crude nuclear explosive device, with minimum attention drawn to their acts (Harvard Kennedy School, 2012). All these conditions make it easier for terrorist groups to witness their intentions and motives. in that respect are strong indicators that a numerate of terrorist groups are interested in acquiring and using nuclear power in their acts against civilians. In 1998, Osama stack away Laden said that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction would provide reliable defense of Muslims against the rest of the world (Harvard Kennedy School, 2012). As of today, at least trey terrorist organizations could be planning a nuclear attack Al-Qaeda, Aum Shinrikyo, and North Caucasus-based separatists (Harvard Kennedy School, 2012). These are the organizations that have demonstrated strong interest in the development of nuclear-based terrorist strategies. The exact number of terrorist groups looking for a nuclear weapon is currently unknown, but Aum Shinrikyo and Al Qaeda have already tried to purchase nuclear materials in the stern market (Harvard Kennedy School, 2012). For the past ten years, Al-Qaeda has persistently tried to acquire nuclear materials and continues to pursue the goal of getting a nuclear capability (Harvard Kennedy School, 2012). There are no known cases of acquiring nuclear materials by terrorist groups. Also, it is not clear whether any terrorist groups have access to governments that can obtain these materia ls for them (Harvard Kennedy School, 2012). Yet, there are several ways in which nuclear materials needed for the bomb could be acquired (a) from a global stockpile of nuclear weapons (2) from international nuclear facilities containing separated atomic number 94 (3) from states that are claimed to possess nuclear weapons, such as Russia and North Korea and (4) from training and research reactors (Harvard Kennedy