Although terrorists in Southwest Asia have employed chemical weapons in numerous attacks over the past 15 years against civilian and military targets, recent plots interrupted in Europe and Australia have resurrected international attention to the threat of chem-bio terrorism. Furthermore, the Skripal and Jong-nam assassinations underscore the challenges faced by public safety and security professionals in responding to CB incidents. In response to these events, multiple European governments have elevated threat warnings about chem-bio terrorism.

On 28 March 2019, S2 instructor Craig Gundry presented a leadership workshop about managing risks of chemical and biological terrorist attacks in the context of facility security operations at the 2019 ASIS Europe conference in Rotterdam. This 90 minute workshop surveyed a range of issues associated with CB terrorism including a survey of previous terrorist attacks, facility attack scenarios, risk management methods, and practical measures for preventing and responding to CB attacks in workplace environments.

Information presented in the ASIS Rotterdam seminar was derived from the S2 Anti-Terrorism Officer (ATO) course. Since 1998, over 3,500 security and public safety professionals have graduated from the S2 institute’s anti-terrorism and chemical and biological terrorism courses.