The covert NBC threat in historical perspective; NBC acquisition and covert delivery - technical possibilities and technical constraints; the threat of nuclear, biological or chemical attack by non-state actors; the threat of nuclear, biological or chemical attack by states; recommendations - an agenda for the American government.

Richard A. Falkenrath is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He served as Executive Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA) and, before that, as a Research Fellow. He is the author and co-author of Shaping Europe's Military Order (1995), Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy (1996), America's Achilles' Heel:Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack (1998), and numerous journal articles and chapters of edited volumes. Falkenrath has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the German Society of Foreign Affairs (DGAP) in Bonn. He holds a PhD from the Department of War Studies, King's College, London, where he was a British Marshall Scholar, and is a summa cum laude graduate of Occidental College, Los Angeles, with degrees in economics and international relations. He is currently serving as Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Senior Director for Policy and Plans, Office of Homeland Security. Bradley A. Thayer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

"I know of no more incisive, detailed assessment of the growing threatof mass destruction terrorism than America's Achilles'Heel. This outstanding book is essential reading for anyone with aserious interest in American national security." U.S. SenatorRichard Lugar