Profiling the CB Adversary: Motivation, Psychology and Decision

An in-depth understanding of the motivations, psychology and decision-making of potential perpetrators of CB attacks is essential as analysts try to assess who is most likely to pursue a CB capability, why they would choose CB weapons and why we have not seen more attempts to acquire and use CB weapons against the homeland. To provide a thorough understanding of these issues, START sought to delve more deeply into the psychology of non-state CB adversaries by examining perpetrators of CB incidents both as individuals and members of organizations. As part of the overall effort to address the lack of quantitative support for many of the proposed explanations of VNSA CB motivations, START developed the Chemical and Biological Non-State Adversaries Database (CABNSAD) — presently available as a beta version.