In the April issue of the CTC Sentinel, an article says that knowledge, materials, infrastructure, personnel, finances, and lines of communications are all components of both a WMD proliferation network and an improvised explosive device (IED) facilitation network. The article looks at the “convergence”, where profit-minded suppliers of an IED facilitation network use their transnational linkages to proliferate the critical components for WMD development and facilitate their employment by non-state actors. It says that examining the risk associated with convergence of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons networks, it is unlikely that profit-minded suppliers will be able to overcome the acquisition hurdles for obtaining the special nuclear material required to make a nuclear device. Convergence will, however, assist non-state actors in developing and employing biological and chemical weapons of minimal complexity – and pointing out that much of the critical material and information required for the development of a WMD is not illegal.
https://ctc.usma.edu/profit-minded-suppliers-wmd-pathways-combating-convergence
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