A sobering, factual account of exactly what a state or terrorist group would require to obtain or build a weapon of mass destruction.
"The next generation of terrorists, rather than going for little dramas, will go for the big one - something so horrific that it gets into the Guinness Book of Records for terrorism." - Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN, November 2001
Weapons of mass destruction are the greatest threat to national security in the twenty-first century: this book explains what it takes for a rogue state or terrorist group to obtain and use them.
The nuclear industry is making increasing quantities of plutonium available worldwide - and it is easy today to obtain the chemicals required to manufacture chemical warfare agents, a single drop of which can kill. But this book is not a collection of scare stories.
For the first time, a nuclear weapons and terrorism expert, describes in straightforward, non-sensational terms what is involved when a state or a terrorist group sets out to make a weapon of mass destruction - biological, chemical, radiological, or nuclear.
He explains what a weapon of mass destruction is, what it is capable of doing, and what is needed to produce one and argues that counter-terrorist measures urgently need to be stepped up to meet the challenges of a new era of international terror.