CBRN Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear weapons Essay

CBRN Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear weapons - Essay Example In the modern context, political instability is a serious problem because one cannot expect an unstable state to be responsible towards humanity. Comparing with nuclear weapons, radiological weapons are with less capacity to create severe damage. To be specific, this sort of weapons is generally used to create chaos among the mass. Within this scenario, world nations suspect that notorious terrorist organizations may make use of this weapon to intimidate humanity. For instance, the Padilla case (2002) proves that terrorist groups have worldwide network and are strong enough to use radiological weapons. To be specific, the government suspected that Padilla may involve in jihad because he is trained to handle radiological weapons. Besides, this person is closely related to the leadership within Al-Qaeda. So, the Padilla case proves that terrorist groups may make use of civilians to handle radioactive weapons. In my opinion, Al-Qaeda possesses economic capability to plot and conduct a severe attack using radiological weapon. Shane (2010) states that, â€Å"Al Qaeda is on the march again, targeting the country from within and without, and your hapless government cannot protect you† (p. A1). To be specific, the revenue from oil trade in the Middle East supports Al-Qaeda. So, one can see that economic capability is not a serious problem for the terrorist organizations. On the other side, the former satellite nations related to Russia (USSR) may have weapons (say, nuclear) and the terrorist organizations can easily influence these nations. Besides, the terrorist organizations make use of religious ideology to attract individuals who live in U.S. and other western nations. Mendelsohn (2009) states that, â€Å"Al Qaeda has never disguised its desire to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear capabilities† (p.77). So, I rate the threat of radiological weapons as high risk because