William Fenimore is a rising junior studying international politics and economics at Middlebury College. William’s academic pursuits have followed various subjects in the security sphere including nonproliferation, counterinsurgency, intelligence, and international trade. He is most content when he feels that he is utilizing his creative problem solving skills to help alleviate security problems. Earlier this year William as a project manager in a program in partnership with the DHS where he and a group of students collaborated with various experts and government officials in order to create and implement an initiative that mitigated targeted radicalization in a local MIddlebury high school. This spring William undertook a semester-long research project on the ISIS online recruitment of emotionally vulnerable individuals. William has amassed experience in various issues of national security through many different modes and is excited to be a part of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies team, where he is hoping to gain more insights on nuclear nonproliferation and the day to day life of an NGO expert.

Final Presentation: Accidental Nuclear Terrorism in Pakistan: A Catastrophe Waiting to Happen

Nuclear Terrorism in Pakistan and its various faces have been studied extensively. It is not a new concept that terrorists may one day attempt to steal a nuclear weapon, make a nuclear weapon, or attack a nuclear reactor. However, one facet that has not been explored to the same extent, is inadvertent attacks on nuclear sites by terrorist groups, or accidental nuclear terrorism. Pakistan’s overall number of terrorism incidents has decreased significantly in the last ten years. However, the Balochistan Liberation Army, a Baloch ethnic group that mainly attacks military outposts, has been increasing the number and severity of their attacks. Because of the nature of the relationship between India and Pakistan, the Pakistan government usually accuses the RAW (India’s intelligence branch) of supporting terrorist groups like the BLA and aiding them in their exploits in Pakistan. Because of this link, true or untrue, between India and terrorist groups in Pakistan, if a nuclear base was attacked by a terrorist group, on purpose or by accident, Pakistan might treat it as a nuclear level threat by India. This could in turn lead to nuclear level tensions between the two states.