yes / This is the second in a series of Occasional Papers published by the Bradford
Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project. It addresses the development of
anti-personnel ¿non-lethal¿1 weapons from 1990 to 1999 and follows on from
Occasional Paper No.1: The Early History of "Non-Lethal" Weapons. 2
Concentrating on events in the United States, 3 this paper explores the
expansion of police and military interest in these weapons with a focus on the
research and development activities conducted by the Department of Justice
and the Department of Defense. Related developments in international law
are also discussed. ¿Anti-materiel¿ weapons, proposed for use against
vehicles, electronic equipment, or other objects, are beyond the scope of this
research.
This paper does not detail the debates over ¿non-lethal¿ weapons that
intensified during this period and were marked by an increase in the
corresponding literature. Nevertheless this is the background against which
the research and development described here occurred. Fidler has observed
that, broadly speaking, this debate was polarised with advocates on one side
and sceptics on the other.4 The advocates5 emphasised what they viewed as
the revolutionary or transformational promise of these weapon systems and
their potential to promote the humane use of force. The sceptics,6 on the
other hand, building on concerns first expressed in the 1970¿s,7 cautioned
against affording any weapons special status and highlighted the need for
critical legal, technological and ethical assessment. Fidler has summarised a
central theme of this enduring debate:
Nothing epitomized the distance separating advocates and sceptics better than
disagreements about the moniker ¿non-lethal weapons¿. For proponents, this
description encapsulated the technological and ethical distinctiveness of these
weapons. For sceptics, the moniker was misleading because it gave moral status to
weapons simply by virtue of their technology and not on the basis of legal and ethical
analysis of why, how and where they are used.8
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/3995 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Davison, N. |
| Publisher | University of Bradford |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Occasional paper, published version paper |
| Rights | © 2007 University of Bradford. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
| Relation | http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/nlw/research_reports/ |
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