Terrorist Motivations for Chemical and Biological Weapons Use: Placing the Threat in Context

摘要

Current popular attention being paid to the threat of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) use by terrorists may give the impression that this is a new phenomenon, but it is not. Most chemical and biological weapons have a long history: the first chemical weapons were used in ancient Greece; biological weapons have been used in a wartime context since at least the Middle Ages. Employed extensively in World War Ⅰ, notably in the use of mustard gas, chemical weapons have evolved very little in their technology since the mid-twentieth century. Although recent technological advances in biological weapons have been made, the vaccines and treatments available to deal with some of them have also advanced. Historically, most terrorist groups have avoided using CBW, in part because they do not want to alienate their own constituencies, and in part because they have not had the technical expertise to turn them into effective weapons. Those CBW attacks that have occurred represent a small proportion of the total number of international terrorist incidents.