Nonlethal Technologies: Progress and Prospects : Report of an Independent Task Force Sponsored by the Council on Foreign RelationsThe United States has been involved in a series of recent operations where non-lethal technologies might have provided useful alternatives for policymakers and U.S. forces. The continuing involvement of the United States in peace-enforcement and peacemaking activities, and the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis in Kosovo (for example), cry out for a determination of whether and how non-lethal technologies might provide a possible third option between economic sanctions and military force to achieve U.S. strategic objectives. Non-Lethal Technologies, which updates the 1995 Independent Task Force on non-lethal weapons, provides that determination and finds that non-lethal weapons can potentially contribute to the capability of U.S. military forces across the entire range of engagement types, from observer forces, to peacekeeping, to large-scale military engagements. For non-lethal weapons to become an effective third option, military leaders must have a sound assessment of the expectations and potential of non-lethal weapons, and diplomats and negotiators must be familiar with the new U.S. military capability and the range of confrontations in which it can be used. The report applauds the accomplishments of the Defense Department's Executive Agent for non-lethal weapons and his day-to-day operating arm (the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate), and supports the Directorate's continuing endeavors in the tactical arena, recommending that its responsibilities expand to include payloads for strategic-range delivery of non-lethal weapons and related capabilities for information operations. |
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Page 39 - George H. Quester is a Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, where he teaches courses on International Relations, US Foreign Policy and International Military Security.
Page 46 - The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.
Page 37 - Snyder is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.
Page 45 - A coordinated series of obstacles designed or employed to canalize, direct, restrict, delay or stop the movement of an opposing force, and to impose additional losses in personnel, time and equipment on the opposing force.
Page 46 - Information operations conducted during time of crisis or conflict to achieve or promote specific objectives over a specific adversary or adversaries.
Page 37 - D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, and an emeritus fellow at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center.
Page 2 - Council — composed by statute of the President, the Vice President, the Secretaries of State and Defense, and the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness...
Page 56 - Lipsky is professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of policy studies, Legal Services Institute. He has published widely on "street-level" bureaucracy and various urban problems.
Page 54 - Security and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served on the National Security Council staff from 1983 until 1987.
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