Post-Explosion Nuclear Attribution and Deterrence

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Nuclear attribution or post-explosion forensics is the process of determining the origin of nuclear material after a nuclear incident. While nuclear terrorism has been well-explored in academic literature, there are no technical assessments of attribution capability. This thesis attempts to fill that gap by combining an assessment of the current technology with the contribution that attribution can make toward deterrence. I find that the technology behind attribution is well-developed but not foolproof, and I conclude that if the current capabilities were publicized more thoroughly and the post-explosion process of assessing the evidence were internationalized, states and individual actors might be deterred more than they already are. I explore other possible policy options, including a nuclear database and nuclear tagging, and these are found to be useful but to add less to deterrence.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 24, 2006

Author	Miller, Michael
Advisor	May, Michael

Subject	CISAC
Subject	Center for International Security and Cooperation
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	nuclear weapons
Subject	nuclear attribution
Subject	deterrance
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/ry661rp1527

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Miller, Michael. (2006). Post-Explosion Nuclear Attribution and Deterrence. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/ry661rp1527

Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses

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