Assessing the Risk of Islamist Terrorists Using Human Vectors to Deploy Contagious Pathogens

Grant Year: 2018

Jeffrey Bale will lead an effort to explore how terrorists might use human vectors, such as suicide attackers infected with contagious diseases, as a delivery system for biological weapons. His team will examine the technical feasibility of such attacks, the ideological legitimacy of such attacks in radical Islamist thought, and the emotional and psychological factors that would propel or inhibit terrorists from embarking on this path. The project’s findings will appear in a report and series of briefings.