National security threats can often look like fads, where everybody’s attention is focused on the threat sector or buzzword of the day, whether “communism,” nuclear proliferation, overpopulation, “terrorism,” climate change, border security, or “cyber,” and everything else sits forgotten. While it is fairly obvious that one threat does not disappear simply because another emerges, it is also fairly easy to forget the obvious in this case, a forgetfulness that adversaries around the globe can count on: there are just too many threats and actors around the world for the US and its allies to track and counter. In the most recent example of this difficulty, the State Department is trying to remind national security officials that nuclear terrorism remains a threat. “It is, in a sense, our solemn charge to do everything we can to make sure you don’t have to hear about it because it has been entirely suppressed…but it is still good to talk about nuclear smuggling and nuclear terrorism from time to time, to ensure that everybody remains focused upon keeping this true,” stated the assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. While international monitoring bodies have achieved significant progress in reducing the ability of hostile actors from pursuing nuclear materials and attacks, the assistant secretary of state noted, “we cannot be sure how much R/N materials is already out there on the black market…there are a great many nuclear material scams out there, but not everything is a scam, and there have been enough real cases to make clear that we must take this challenge very seriously indeed.”
Source: State Department: Don’t forget about threat of nuclear terrorism
