Book Description
Like a ship running from a hurricane at sea, the United States Government is struggling to reach a safe port and shelter from a threatening WMD storm. In an era where some adversaries are perhaps on the cusp of achieving the capabilities to destroy forward deployed American military forces with nuclear weapons (e.g., in a future conflict with North Korea) or to kill thousands of Americans in our cities with aerosolized biological weapons (e.g., if Al Qaeda were to achieve the capability), the United States and its allies are racing to create effective chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) countermeasures. Serious gaps remain, however, and extreme vulnerabilities persist even a decade after Secretary Les Aspin announced the beginning of the Department of Defense (DoD) Counterproliferation Initiative (CPI). Much has been done since the CPI was launched in 1993, but much still must be accomplished before the United States can confidently either deter all adversaries from CBRN attacks or, at least, effectively neutralize any such attacks by a combination of effective counterforce targeting, active defenses, passive defenses, or the ability to recover through superb consequence management actions.
