Nations around the world are understandably concerned that weapons of mass destruction — from Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons to growing arsenals of nuclear weapons in North Korea and Pakistan — could be used with horrific consequences by threatened regimes or even obtained by terrorists groups.
In response, the U.S. government has invested tens of billions of dollars over the past two decades to help secure weapons, the materials necessary to build them, and the know-how to assemble them. But in an era of declining budgets and potentially growing threats, the likelihood for miscalculation, theft or even the deliberate use of a weapon of mass destruction is mounting.
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