While the United States struggles to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, a more frightening nightmare is simmering right now in Pakistan, where a weak but nuclear-armed government is being buffeted by radical Islamic influences, terrorism and several bloody insurgencies.
An overview of the successful cooperative threat reduction programs to reduce the threat of Russian 'loose nukes', including the successful Megatons-to-Megawatts program.
North Korea appears to have bought a complete nuclear weapon from either Pakistan or a former Soviet Union state, according to a South Korean newspaper. The purchase was apparently intended to avoid nuclear weapons testing that could be detected from the outside, the source was quoted as saying.
Bruce Blair surveys the dangers from Russian terrorists acquiring "loose nukes" or other nuclear material and he argues for a more comprehensive plan to reduce the risks. He also introduces a new threat, that cyber-terrorists might hack into Russia's ailing nuclear early warning network and fool it in thinking an attack had taken place.
The author warns that the failure of Western nations to tighten controls on bomb-grade materials may mean that terrorists may "soon have better luck shopping for nuclear bomb material in Western markets than in the former Soviet Union."
The authors warn that delay in resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff could allow them time to sell nuclear materials to terrorist groups.
Instead of using only technical measures to improve the security of Russian fissile materials, officials should focus on the personnel and workplace culture at nuclear sites.
The authors review the open-source information about suitcase nukes to assess the level of threat stemming from the possibility that a number of them could have ended in the hands of terrorists or states that support them.
India and Pakistan have imposed strict security at facilities that house their nuclear weapons, virtually eliminating the possibility of a nuclear theft, said a new US government-funded study.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has warned that an invasion of Iraq could worsen the terrorist threat, not reduce it. They fear it could disperse weapons stockpiles - and the scientists who can build and use them - into the murky world of global terrorism.