On a final note, Langewiesche offers excellent accounts of the rampant corruption that permeates Pakistani society. A reader should therefore come away from the book with unease about the command, control, and security of the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal. By his account, Pakistani nuclear stores are guarded by corrupt Pakistani military personnel, which may include potential al-Qaeda sympathizers. Yet Langewiesche does not proffer scenarios for how al-Qaeda would go about bribing or snatching fissile material or even a handful of nuclear weapons. This is a topic ripe for journalistic investigative reporting.

Despite these shortcomings, the book does a public service by sounding an alarm over the risks of non-state actors acquiring nuclear weapons. At the end of the day, though, the work just scratches the surface of the formidable dangers and challenges that will face the international community in coming decades.