Welcome to the Violent Non-State Actor Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Data Portal
The prospect of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism has been a source of policy, strategic, and policy concern since the mid-1990s. In the course of ongoing research conducted by the Unconventional Weapons & Technology Division (UWT) of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), it became clear that despite extensive expenditures of money and effort by a multitude of agencies and institutions, there was still very little substantive empirical analysis on this topic. Most discussion of CBRN terrorism phenomenon was theorizing based on a limited number of high-profile events or speculation based on non-CBRN analyses.
UWT was determined to address the concerns about CBRN terrorism in an analytically robust fashion. However, when UWT researchers moved to address this issue, it became clear there were no databases allowing for robust quantitative (or even qualitative) analysis. Existing datasets were either extremely narrow (e.g., collecting only biological incidents over a limited time) or recorded too few variables to be useful (e.g., chronologies). Most datasets treated all sources as being of equivalent reliability and competence and were generally too inclusive (little effort to validate event details or occurrence). In addition, with the exception of START’s Global Terrorism Database (GTD), the datasets were not being revised or updated.
In order to provide a basis for rigorous empirical analysis of the CBRN terrorism phenomenon, UWT developed three databases: Profiles Of Incidents involving CBRN and Non-state actors (POICN); Chemical And Biological Non-State Adversaries Database (CABNSAD); and Radiological And Nuclear Non-State Actor Database (RANNSAD).
Since 2021 both POICN and CABNSAD have been revised and updated to become the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Event Database and the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Actor Database respectively. RANNSAD has been deprecated and its content incorporated into the Actor Database.
These databases represent the largest open source publicly available databases on ideologically motivated CBRN events and individuals who pursue and/or use CBRN weapons.
Under the auspices of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)) Basic Research Office (BRO), the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Data Portal serves as the permanent home and provides an online presence for these CBRN databases.
Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Event Database
For the users who are familiar with the Profiles Of Incidents involving CBRN and Non-state actors (POICN) database, the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Event Database (CBRN Event Database) can be seen as the online successor to the POICN database. The CBRN Event Database includes the same 120-plus variables contained in the POICN database; however, the CBRN Event Database is being updated consistently to provide the users with the latest information on new cases as well as additional information uncovered about old cases. Additionally, users are able to easily access the CBRN Event Database through the CBRN Data Portal, perform queries on the database, and view event records online.
Finally, if a user would like to perform a more nuanced analysis, one can contact the research team for assistance. The research team will be happy to provide you with responses to your information request or, if you desire, provide you with a file containing relevant data.
Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Actor Database
We have developed the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Actor Database (CBRN Actor Database) to replace the Chemical And Biological Non-State Adversaries Database (CABNSAD) and Radiological And Nuclear Non-State Actor Database (RANNSAD). To accomplish this, we first carefully harmonized and integrated all data contained in CABNSAD and RANNSAD (keeping as many of the variables from the old databases as possible). We also harmonized the variable coding of the CBRN Actor Database with the CBRN Event Database to ensure seamless interactivity between the two databases. We then brought the CBRN Actor Database up to date and integrated it into the CBRN Data Portal.
Unlike the CBRN Event Database, the CBRN Actor Database contains ideologically motivated actors (terrorists, insurgents, etc.) and non-ideologically motivated CBRN actors (criminals). The CBRN Actor Database codes available, non-PII data, on the characteristics of known individual threat actors, or alleged threat actors, directly associated with CBRN Events. Unidentified or unknown individual threat actors are not recorded in the dataset.
Finally, again, if a user would like to perform a more nuanced analysis, one can contact the research team for assistance. The research team will be happy to provide you with responses to your information request or, if you desire, provide you with a file containing relevant data.
Criminal CBRN Event Database
The Criminal CBRN Event Database is a new development building upon the work undertaken in development of the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Event Database (CBRN Event Database) and the Violent Non-State Actor CBRN Actor Database (CBRN Actor Database). Development of this database was undertaken in recognition of the lack of systematic recording of the significant numbers of CBRN events perpetrated or attempted by criminal actors. Currently accessible in beta-form this database will, when complete, be of considerable value to analysts, policy-makers, and first responders by enabling a more comprehensive view of CBRN agent pursuit and use than is possible with a sole emphasis on the activities of ideological actors.
The Criminal CBRN Event Database includes the same 120-plus variables contained in the CBRN Event Database with the introduction, where appropriate or necessary, of additional values to reflect the specific characteristics of non-ideological events. Users are able to easily access the Criminal CBRN Event Database through the CBRN Data Portal, perform queries on the database, and view event records online.
Finally, if a user would like to perform a more nuanced analysis, one can contact the research team for assistance. The research team will be happy to provide you with responses to your information request or, if you desire, provide you with a file containing relevant data.