This book examines the use of concepts - specifically 'weapons of mass destruction' (WMD) - in US foreign policy discourse. Current analysis of WMD definition has made headway into identifying the repercussions that the conceptual conflation of such diverse weapons - typically understood as a reference to nuclear, biological and chemical weapons - has for international security. While the concept assumes these weapons are 'equal', the vast disparity between them, and their disparity from the conventional weapons from which they are supposedly distinct, means this approach is seen as unreflecti
