On Korea: Academic Paper Series 2011

The March 2012 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Seoul, Korea comes at a critical juncture when the world continues to experience a growing number of terrorist attacks leading to mounting concerns about the threat of nuclear terrorism. Nightmare scenarios include vulnerable nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands and nuclear facilities becoming attractive targets. These possibilities were evidently consid- ered by al Qaeda before its attacks of 11 September 2001, by the plotters of the November 2008 Mumbai attack, and by the homegrown Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik who deto- nated a powerful bomb in downtown Oslo in 2011. The NSS also comes as a time when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster reminded the world of yet another adversary—the force of nature—that combined with the force of malice threaten the very foundations of nuclear facilities that are intended to protect, not harm, life. Against this backdrop, some 50 world leaders are charged with the difficult task of agreeing on measures that will indeed secure all vulnerable materials around the world.