Non-Lethal Terrorism

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   For background on the recent cyber-terrorists reports from 
   London, we offer the Council on Foreign Relations' 1995 
   report: 
 
                      NON-LETHAL TECHNOLOGIES 
                 Military Options and Implications 
                Report of an Independent Task Force 
 
   The long history of military operations has been marked by 
   steady increases in the lethality of weapons. U.S. 
   commanders and policymakers face excruciating dilemmas in 
   decisions to use lethal force. They strive to maximize 
   protection of their own troops and to minimize collateral 
   casualties among noncombatants. Authoritarian regimes -- as 
   in Iraq -- and factions in civil wars -- as in Bosnia -- 
   may see fear of American casualties as one factor in 
   deterring intervention against them. Terrorists, guerillas, 
   and other irregular forces often exploit noncombatant 
   populations by mounting attacks from their midst. 
 
   Can technology, ease these dilemmas by providing 
   acceptable, effective non-lethal capabilities to supplement 
   conventional weapons across a broad spectrum of conflict? 
   In major wars or similiar cases of high-level violence, can 
   such capabilities reduce the risk to U.S. forces by, in 
   effect, substituting technology for manpower in performing 
   certain missions, for example, by shutting off power 
   transmission and communications of adversaries? In 
   situations short of traditional warfare -- for example, the 
   humanitarian intervention in Somalia -- can non-lethal 
   systems help provide calibrated coercion proportional to 
   the objectives? How do they relate to the lethal systems on 
   which U.S. forces depend? What policy issues do such 
   technologies pose? In this report a bipartisan task force, 
   including former Air Force and Army chiefs of staff, 
   leading scientists, and other experts, examines these 
   questions. The task force concludes that a number of 
   non-lethal technologies deserve serious consideration in 
   U.S. planning and development for future military 
   contingencies. 
 
 
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