Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 THE WORLD OF NON-LETHAL WEAPONS
- 3 THE LAW OF NON-LETHAL WEAPONS
- 4 THE FBI AND THE DAVIDIANS AT WACO IN 1993
- 5 THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE IN 1994
- 6 THE PERUVIANS AND TUPAC AMARU IN LIMA IN 1996–1997
- 7 THE RUSSIANS AND THE CHECHENS IN MOSCOW IN 2002
- 8 THE BRITISH AND THE IRAQIS IN BASRA IN 2003
- 9 CAUTIONARY CONSIDERATIONS
- 10 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
- Select Bibliography
- Index
10 - RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 THE WORLD OF NON-LETHAL WEAPONS
- 3 THE LAW OF NON-LETHAL WEAPONS
- 4 THE FBI AND THE DAVIDIANS AT WACO IN 1993
- 5 THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE IN 1994
- 6 THE PERUVIANS AND TUPAC AMARU IN LIMA IN 1996–1997
- 7 THE RUSSIANS AND THE CHECHENS IN MOSCOW IN 2002
- 8 THE BRITISH AND THE IRAQIS IN BASRA IN 2003
- 9 CAUTIONARY CONSIDERATIONS
- 10 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It is difficult to generalize about non-lethal weapons; there is so much diversity in the objectives, current status, and future prospects of the various systems. Proponents sometimes refer casually to the “family” of NLW programs, but that vocabulary overstates their commonality – the different breeds of NLWs are not really closely related, and each must be evaluated on a careful, case-by-case basis for its individual feasibility, legality, and wisdom. Some NLW devices are familiar, having been successfully operated for years; others are just now on the cusp of deployment; still others appear only dimly on the horizon – and a few have already been discarded.
By the same token, perhaps it would be intellectually cleaner not to speak of a category of “non-lethal weapons” at all – if the entrants in this category have so little in common, and if each must be assessed separately, perhaps they should simply be labeled “weapons,” and not generically distinguished from any others under that overarching heading. That notion has some appeal; in the abstract, NLWs are no more and no less than “weapons,” and the same rules ought to apply to them as to all others.
But there is much to be gained by exploring the field, or subfield, of non-lethal arms, apart from all the other types of weapons, and by conceptualizing NLWs as a distinct genre.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Non-Lethal WeaponsThe Law and Policy of Revolutionary Technologies for the Military and Law Enforcement, pp. 142 - 166Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006