Seed, David. US Narratives of Nuclear Terrorism Since 9/11: Worst-Case Scenarios

London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp. 347

Abstract

The book presents an inclusive literature review of the threat of nuclear terrorism and its relevance to the United States. In addition to summarizing the literature published on the question of nuclear terrorism and its varying narratives in the US, the writer tries to provide a summarized account of movies discussing various characteristics of nuclear terrorism in the post 9/11 environment. David See, the author of the book, is a British professor having expertise in political fiction. His fiction work examines the history of world politics and its association with the contemporary international system. A recently published work of Seed on the US role in the world politics discusses the potential security threats to the American nation in the age of terrorism. As the biggest victim of terrorism in the form of 9/11, the US state officials have accepted the terrorism as the gravest threat to the American nation because the tragic incident of 9/11 has fabricated a different security environment for Washington. The dramatic change in the international security environment, in the form of terrorism, has encircled the whole international system without sparing a single state. Contrary to the whole international system, the United States has faced the 9/11 catastrophe. However, Washington's leading security architecture decided to launch a global war on terror, which is the central theme of Seed's work. The initiation of a global campaign for combating the threats of terrorism contains the substantial potential for undermining the American domestic security mechanism.

By analyzing the history of the decades-long clash of the cold war, the writer attempts to discuss the active role of different government departments in the US and their preparedness to address the threat of terrorism. The probable future contingencies under the broader conception of terrorism are intended to place the US under the shadows of nuclear terrorism where a nuclear attack launch by a terrorist organization or an individual can repeat the history of September 11. It is called an “American Hiroshima” by Seed in his analysis (p. 13). In this way, the book divides the debate into eight chapters, and each chapter covers a specific topic in the existing literature published from different parts of the US. The literature review starts the debate in the first chapter by introducing the main concept of nuclear terrorism and its different scenarios developed by various authors. The subsequent chapters continue the debate by explaining various terrorism faces caused by nuclear attacks on different US cities in the literature. The problem of unauthorized use of nuclear strikes designed and carried by various clandestine terrorist organizations or the anti-US states remains a common discussion point in all chapters. The "nuclear 9/11" is a probable future threat to the US, which has compelled the different literary circles to start discussing the issue of terrorism and its nuclear dimension in their academic investigations (p. 173). The last two chapters of the book describe the threats of cyber terrorism and bioterrorism, which are maintained by various authors in their fiction works.

The book briefly conveys the US standing in its global war on terror to the international community because the fiction attributes of the nuclear terrorism try to relate the probable threats of terrorist organizations using nuclear warheads on different US cities. The threat of nuclear terrorism is emanating mainly from Iran, Russia, and North Korea because the state officials from Tehran, Moscow, and Pyongyang are determined to launcha Nuclear Pearl Harbour in the domains of nuclear and cyberspace on the US (p. 259). The debates on security threats emanating from different parts of the world include Pakistan, a frontline state in the global war on terror, in the list of states capable of jeopardizing the US national security mechanism. The mentioning of Pakistan in the American literature on terrorism is the most surprising aspect of Seed's work because the international community has acknowledged Islamabad's counter-terror campaign. Apart from tracing the varying positions of writers on the concept of nuclear terrorism and its probable association to the US in the existing American literature, a brief survey of movies and official documents is also referred to as credible sources for understanding the US narrative on terrorism the post 9/11 world.

The book's central theme revolves around the idea of rationalizing the phenomenon of nuclear terrorism and its application in the US, a serve victim of terrorism in the world. The book endeavors to present analyses of historical and political accounts available in American fiction. Thus, the book broadly covering the accessible literature on the nuclear history of the cold war and the security threats of nuclear terrorism is an appropriate study for the people belongs to history and politics. It is a comprehensive review of literature unfolding American society living in the panic caused by probable nuclear terrorism threats.