Understanding the current threat of bioterrorism: A study of violent non-state actors' online instruction manuals

Abstract

Against the backdrop of a pandemic that has overwhelmed and caused great damage to nations across the world, the issue of bioterrorism has received renewed attention. There is increasing concern that ill-intentioned actors' interest in bioterrorism might revive as Violent Non-State Actors (VNSAs) are witnessing the devastating effect of biological threat agents and national authorities' inability to control the COVID virus and its consequences. Simultaneously, technological developments are decreasing the economical, practical, and intellectual barriers for VNSAs to enact advanced mass destruction bioterrorist attacks. The crux then, lies in the fact that bioterrorism-related incidents, thus far, have been scarce and limited in scope despite increasing technological opportunities. Indeed, the world has yet to witness a successful mass casualty bioterrorist attack. The divergence between the room of opportunity available to VNSAs and the seeming lack of efforts to exploit these opportunities to advance their bioterrorism capabilities, instigates further research on the issue to improve our understanding of the current and future bioterrorism threat. This paper aims to improve our understanding of the bioterrorism threat by conducting an empirically grounded qualitative evaluation of VNSAs' current...