THE world has embarked on a new arms race – and rather than nuclear warheads, the currency this time is arms that don’t kill. Governments, armies and police forces hope that “non-lethal” weapons will not only offer more effective methods of crowd control, but help draw a line under the bloody conflicts of the 20th century. The philosophy – if we can’t stop people fighting let’s try to stop them killing – seems admirable. But there’s a catch. In many situations NLWs may cause more suffering than they prevent.
The field took off in 1996, when the US Department of Defense set up the the , (JNLWP) to develop a half-way house “between shouting and shooting”. Enthusiasm for NLWs has accelerated, particularly after the 9/11 attacks and subsequent military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The directorate’s annual budget is now over $50 million, and among other things it devices to clear buildings of people, control the behaviour of individuals and crowds, and divert aircraft in mid-air. The market for NLWs is thriving, with private companies competing for contracts from governments and security agencies around the world. Over the past 10 years, the US company Taser International has sold more than 359,000 hand-held devices to more than 13,000 law enforcement and military agencies in 44 countries.
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“Governments are going full steam ahead,” says Robert Mandel, who studies international affairs at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. “They feel this can sanitise war and remove the body-bag-inspired objections of sceptical citizenry.” It’s a trend John Alexander, a senior fellow at the US military’s Joint Special Operations University at Hurlburt Field, Florida, fully supports: “If it’s your kids being held hostage, what tools would you like the police to have available?”
Police forces and armies now have an impressive range of “humane” weapons at their disposal, from plastic bullets, tear gas and electroshock devices to stinger grenades, sticky foam and high-velocity beanbags. Higher tech devices are on the way. One US company is building a microwave gun that will create sounds inside a person’s skull. Another is developing a strobe gun whose flickering lights cause disorientation and vertigo. The JNLWD is working on high-energy lasers and devices that can direct intense beams of sound, as well as a microwave heat-beam that causes an intense burning sensation at more than 500 metres. Supporters say this technological carnival is great news for policing, because it should result in fewer deaths.
If only it were that simple. One cause for concern is that very few of the weapons are truly non-lethal. Following the deaths of “a significant number” of people in custody, the US Department of Justice is into the use of stun guns by the police, due to report next year. When Russian security forces used the anaesthetic fentanyl to overwhelm terrorists who took over a Moscow theatre in October 2002 they killed 130 hostages. Even tear gas and pepper spray have caused fatalities, while projectiles such as plastic bullets can cause permanent disablement.
Steve Wright, a security expert at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, believes NLWs “militarise” the police, who often end up using them inappropriately. The on policing in Northern Ireland stated that the use of plastic bullets was a major cause of conflict escalation during the Troubles and called for research into safer options. “Less-lethal weapons induced a backlash which then justified the deployment of more forceful methods by the security forces,” says Wright.
While supporters hope NLWs will consign blood-and-guts warfare to history and end mass suffering, this too, may be wishful thinking. Minimal death tolls from NLWs could prolong wars with huge psychological effects on the societies involved. NLWs could also make conflict more likely, with governments more gung-ho about going to war. And they could encourage “adventurism”, with nations intervening in conflicts that don’t concern them directly. “I stand with American civil war general Robert E. Lee when he said it is actually desirable that wars be bloody and gruesome so that they are avoided whenever possible,” says Mandel.
“It is desirable that wars be bloody and gruesome so they are avoided whenever possible”
NLWs are of course a valuable option in many policing situations and have reduced casualties in peacekeeping and crowd control operations in Kosovo, Iraq and elsewhere. The US army now employs barbed nets instead of bullets to slow cars speeding towards checkpoints in Iraq, for example.
The problem is that governments and companies are rushing to develop new NLWs with little thought to how they might be used, then deploying them without adequate testing. A written for the European parliament in 2000 made a host of recommendations, including more research into their effects and legally binding rules on how they are used. Almost none have been acted on.
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