Annotated Bibliography on Nuclear Terrorism

Annotated Bibliography on Nuclear Terrorism

Volders, B. (2019). Nuclear Terrorism: What Can We Learn from Los Alamos?. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(5), 1006-1025.

Volders (2019)’s article on “nuclear terrorism “discuss the literature gap on the possibility of a terrorist group conducting a nuclear attack given that such an attack is complex and require massive funding and infrastructure to construct. It elaborately illustrates the view on the organization involved in nuclear terrorism threat assessment, with the terrorist organization being the unit of analysis. The second part of the article explains why the “Los Alamos” case study, which was the first unified atomic bomb program that presents a probable understanding of nuclear terrorism. The main dynamics of organization and challenges for undertaking the project of nuclear terrorism are inductively outlined through the assessment of organizational theory regarding design and potential application to nuclear terrorism.  The organizational approach used in this article touches on the division of tasks as well as coordination within the clandestine group on how it operates and be innovative towards such complex projects. It has also built on the Los Alamos case study by inferring to the inductive terrorist organization aspect that is inherently trade-off effective in the design of such nuclear weapons.

This article is a significant source to me since it captures the limitation that terrorist groups have towards conducting nuclear terrorist attacks that most Western countries have been mainly affected by terrorist activities fear. Most literature does not cover the scale of preparedness that terrorist group needs to undertake this project, but they extensively consider the areas that are used in conducting nuclear terrorism. With this article, I will be able to articulate the terrorism activities within western countries properly and postulate the risk that they pose to these nations. I will also be able to corroborate my insight on nuclear terrorism as part of the terrorist activities within the western countries. Thus, I will conclusively denote that such a complex attack is still farfetched even if the infrastructure of creating nuclear weapons can easily be accessed with radical groups in the black market.

Lim, E. (2019). South Korea’s Nuclear Dilemmas. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2(1), 297-318.

Lim’s (2019) journal captures the nuclear dynamics that are entailed in the Korean Peninsula by indicating that this dynamic has rapidly begun to transform. This journal discusses how South Korea has been at a cross-road regarding a series of interventions for South Korea to denuclearize. The dilemma that this article addresses is that even though the Jae-Moon regime has shown positive initiative of intending to denuclearize, the nuclear capacity of South Korea is still likely to grow during his term in power. On the other hand, South Korea is conducting extensive research on pyprocessing, which is controversial regarding proliferation view for its future fuel management and, at the same time, pursuing denuclearization. This article analyzes South Korea’s nuclear capacity; reviews the historical aspect of fuel management in the country and also illustrates various perspectives of the nuclear elites and the Korean public on the nuclear phase-out aspect. The conclusion arrived at in this article is that nuclear policy has put South Korea in a dilemma given that it has led contentious internal dynamics and incoherent policies.

From this article, I will be able to understand the dynamics that are involved in nuclear production and the effect that it has on people. This will help me build on my hypothesis that the anticipation for future terrorism using nuclear weapons in their attack is still overreached. Therefore, I would base my argument on opposing the literature that covers nuclear terrorism without capturing the limitation of these groups to conducting such an attack.

References

Lim, E. (2019). South Korea’s Nuclear Dilemmas. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2(1), 297-318.

Volders, B. (2019). Nuclear Terrorism: What Can We Learn from Los Alamos?. Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(5), 1006-1025.