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Future War:
Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First-Century Warfare by
John B. Alexander
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Karl Heinmiller
Bowling Green State
University
Bowling Green, Ohio
Colonel John B. Alexander, Ph.D., U.S. Army (retired) has
taken his years of experience as both a law enforcement
and corrections officer and as an officer in the United
States Army and applied his knowledge to examining the
importance of non-lethal weapons in modern warfare.
With changes in the battlefield and mission objectives,
non-lethal weapons will not only play an important role in
future conflicts but are necessary now. Peacekeeping and
humanitarian operations like those in Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia,
and even more conventional wars like Desert Storm have
shown the great need for the availability of non-lethal
weapons in situations in which violent force is
undesirable. Alexander argues that “the technology
necessary for non-lethal weapons either exists or could be
developed in a relatively short time. The real issue
was for military officers to set requirements and state
the capabilities they needed” (9). This requires an
understanding of situations that militaries and law
enforcement agencies will have to face in the future.
Understanding future situations comes from understanding
present situations. And it is these present engagements,
such as peacekeeping missions is Eastern Europe and armed
conflicts in the Middle East, that provide the
“real-world context” for the necessary requirements of
non-lethal weapons. The book is separated into three
parts, each part having its own introduction and
explanation.
"Part I: The Rationale" looks into how future
conflicts are likely to evolve, what options will be
necessary, and how non-lethal weapons are likely to be
developed and deployed. There are four chapters in Part I, each beginning with a hypothetical
situation that highlights Alexander’s arguments in that
chapter. This allows the reader to have a
“real-world” context with which to view the need for
non-lethal weapons. Real-life scenarios from
Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, and law enforcement situations are
also introduced; actual firsthand accounts are provided,
and solutions involving non-lethal weapons are given to
show how a particular situation could have been different
had non-lethal weapons been available or used.
"Part II: Technology" explorers the available non-lethal
weapons technologies and how existing technologies can be
used to guide the development of new non-lethal
technologies to meet the demands of military and law
enforcement. Each of the seven chapters herein is
dedicated to an existing non-lethal technology category. While each
category could contain a high number of non-lethal weapons
– each category could have a book all its own – Alexander
describes related weapons systems without being over
technical, making the book suitable for the lay reader and
not just for other experts or military and law enforcement
personnel. By discussing general weapons systems (such as
kinetic impact or OC resins), rather than the details
about any one individual weapon, Alexander gives a broad
view that is easy to understand and easy to relate to
current and future developments in non-lethal technology
and where those technologies belong in the military and
law enforcement arsenal. Discussion is also given to
theoretical weapons. Furthermore, Alexander is not
hesitant to discuss the shortcomings of some of these
weapons systems. In fact, knowing the flaws of the
systems being applied is crucial to determining how useful
and in what situations a particular non-lethal weapon
should be used.
"Part III: Operational Scenarios" goes into
greater details as to how certain non-lethal technologies
should be deployed. Alexander’s arguments are
illustrated by hypothetical situations regarding Peace
Support Operations (chapter 12), Technological Sanctions
(chapter 13), Strategic Paralysis (chapter 14), and
Hostage/Barricade Situations (chapter 15). There are
also sixteen pages of black and
whites photos in chapter 14 that illustrate many of the
non-lethal weapons and technologies discussed in the book.
"Part IV: The Issues" discusses the valid
concerns about non-lethal weapons. Such concerns
address issues of law, ethics, technology, policy, and
psychology which are all very important in an ever-increasing litigate world. Though non-lethal weapons
are not meant to replace lethal weapons in the military
(indeed, the book often points out that non-lethal weapons
should be provided as a first response, in hopes of
deterring escalation of violence, with adequate lethal
force as backup) it is essential that peacekeepers and law
enforcement personnel have non-lethal options available
before lethal force can be considered. There is also
discussion of the problems with non-lethal weapons in
general, and Alexander provides possible solutions to many
of the problems. He admits that non-lethal
weapons are not a “do-it-all” replacement system.
Nor is there any illusion that solutions will come easily.
What John Alexander gives us with Future War is a comprehensive guide to non-lethal
weapons technologies, the need for non-lethal weapons, and
the issues involving non-lethal weapons that will
invariably be encountered. Alexander is
probably the world’s foremost expert on non-lethal weapons
and has the credentials to prove it: he is a former
colonel in the United States Army’s Special Forces; a five-year
deputy sheriff in Dade County, Florida; a former corrections officer in Dade County, Florida; and, while
working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he developed the
concept of Non-Lethal Defense. He holds a M.A. from Pepperdine University and a Ph.D. from Walden University.
He attended the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, the
Sloan School at MIT, and the Kennedy School of Government
general officer program, “National and International
Security for Senior Executives” at Harvard University.
He has chaired the first and many other conferences on the
topic of non-lethal weapons. He augments his own
credentials with sources which range from personal
interviews and government documents to symposiums and
meetings of those directly involved with policy making in
regards to non-lethal weapons. Both real-life and
hypothetical situations, given throughout the entire book,
allow even the lay reader to grasp the
kinds of roles non-lethal weapons must play in the future
of militaries and law enforcement agencies.
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