Introduction

Interest in non-lethal weapons (NLWs), which have been defined as being ‘explicitly designed and primarily employed to incapacitate personnel or material while minimising fatalities, permanent injury to personnel, and undesired damage to property and the environment’ 1 has increased dramatically during the last ten years2 as a result of: 3

• Qualitative advances in non-lethal weapons technology, including dualuse technology applications in civilian/military operations;

• Debates concerning the ‘revolution in military affairs’ , 4 the ‘revolution in military technology’ and the ‘revolution in political affairs’ ; 5

• A need to find alternatives to lethal methods in peacekeeping operations;

• An increasing role for military forces in operations other than war (OOTW) and military operations in urban terrain (MOUT), including peacekeeping operations;

• Situations in which combatants and non-combatants are mixed together, sometimes deliberately;

• Increasing resistance by domestic constituencies to accept deaths in war operations;

• Debates surrounding inhumane types of NLWs, such as blinding laser weapons;

• Requests from civilian law enforcement agencies and prison services for non-lethal arrest and restraint techniques;

• The concept of being able to fight a ‘bloodless and humane’ war; • The presence of international media in war zones and civil disturbances

recording the brutality of violent conflict and responses to it.