Customer Reviews

Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First-Century Warfare

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2 star:		(1)
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John Alexander is an insider who knows combat and its many modern forms. He also has deliberately decided to advance the ethical response to these new forms of conflict and presents us a convincing array of non-lethal weapons that will reshape not only the defense industry but the law enforcement community.

This book takes the reader to each of the situations imagined in a convincing set of scenarios. Then each of the new non-lethal approaches to the neutralization of the conflict is introduced at its point of greatest impact. The writing is straightforward and at the sametime paints a real picture of the situations visualized.

Ample testimony is attached to this work by respected military thinkers and Alexander does not stretch his case beyond reason to make his point. The documentation is also done in a scholarly fashion.

Tom Clancy sets the stage by raising the edgy spectre of decision-making in the emerging scenarios of conflict. At the same time he accurately describes the new moral center required of soldiers and nations to provide an appropriate response to this now publicly watched phenomenon.

This is a book needed by professionals but not out of the reach of others who want to evaluate how our world will bring itself into the twenty-first century. A good read. Without this work you will be blind-sided by whats just around the corner.

John Alexander's book is written with concise, clear descriptions of future weapons. These include laser/taser. Chemical systems, computer viruses, non-lethal electromagnetic pulse-power weapons and others. Each citizen reader will find this book informational and vital reading. It helps an individual understand weapons that may be used in the 21st Century.

This reader finds the "issues section" pertaining to future wars especially informative. In the "Strategic Implications" section, a subsection entitled education is of particular note. In this section three national security issues are identified as arising from a substandard education system. One is the limited pool of young men and women from which to recruit as weapons systems are getting more sophisticated to operate. The second education factor of strategic importance is the education of the civilian population. Many citizens are not sufficiently educated to understand the current issues of national security as they are becoming more complex. The third education factor is in weapons development as many of these systems need brainpower to help design or improve them. This reader agrees with the author. The author is giving education a roadmap on areas the future citizen needs in their portfolio of education.

This review is to encourage teachers in classrooms teaching citizenship to add this book to their reading list. For responsible citizens this book is a must read.

Dr. B. Feist-Fite, Educator

This book has a pretty good introduction to the growing science and technology of non-lethal weapons. It should serve you well if you're looking for something to get you started on building your knowledge of this field. However, you will be disappointed if you are looking for in-depth details on specific systems and technology (these are in most cases still probably classified in any case). The book is still definitely worth reading, though.

The book is well written and adds a new dimension to future warfare. The author seems expert in the field. He also tackles some of the tough issues for future national security. Required reading for anyone seriously interested in national defense.

Future War would have been a great work of fiction. It's intriguing subject matter and there are some really entertaining scenarios that would keep you turning pages long into the night.

However. If you're in the market for a well-researched, factual account, you should probably look elsewhere, especially if you are, like myself, a relative new-comer to the whole non-lethal weapons field.

Col. Alexander gets some extraordinary things wrong. He uses Ruby Ridge as an example of law enforcement gone wrong and to point up the need for non-lethal alternatives to lethal force. No arguments there. But he must have been thinking of a different Ruby Ridge, because in this one, Kevin Harris doesn't survive. I found that interesting, seeing as how Kevin Harris ended up giving a report to the FBI and getting tried in a court of law after the standoff ended. Reports of his death in this book are greatly exaggerated.

Col. Alexander would also like us to believe that Tazers don't burn. Even in the Nineties, law enforcement was aware that Tazers burn the skin. Several court cases have included evidence of the burn patterns unique to different models of stun guns. He also seems to take great pleasure in claiming that they are never lethal, which is an interesting claim to make about something meant to deliver tens of thousands of volts of electricity into the human body. "Never" is a word that an ostensibly learned man should not have employed to describe such a weapon, even given the state of knowledge in the 90s.

I won't spend this space dissecting the plethora of other errors I've found. I just want to present a caution to anyone incautious enough to buy this book: before getting excited about any one claim, make sure you get the facts from another source. You can't trust this book to be right.

One of my first introductions to John Alexander was running across his name on the World Wide Web, and he was depicted as a rather sinister, if not evil figure - because he was involved in developing non-lethal weapons....

I didn't get it.

Yes, in an ideal world we would need no weapons of any sort, but meanwhile, back in our less-than-perfect reality, the idea of weapons that temporarily incapacitated someone, even if they had a small chance of permanently injuring or killing them, compared to a bullet, which had a very large chance of permanently injuring or killing them, seemed like practical and humanitarian progress to me.

Future War is a detailed and sophisticated treatment of the vital subject of non-lethal (or at least usually non-lethal) weapons and the need we will increasingly have for them in our imperfect world that makes me wish there were more "sinister" people like Alexander around! This is not a simplistic, good guys versus bad guys book, but it does give us the information we and our leaders must have to deal with the future.

Future war is a brilliant look at the varied types and systems of Less, Less Than, and Non-Lethal technologies.(and the difference between the three)
Dr. Alexander is very creative and colorful when it comes to conceptualising situations that these technologies could be utilised, both in Law enforcment and military/peace keeping engagements, as well as pulling out actual cases and tests.

While heavily footnoted, the book avoids becoming too overly technical, but could possibly bog down a reader not familiar with some of the terminology. Unfortunatly the book also doesn't go into nearly enough technical detail as some might hope, and in some cases leaves the reader confused about certain devices and aspects.

Another aspect about this book is that it was written several years ago, and the technologies talked about are in a relativly rapidly advancing field. By today, some of the things mentioned have been phased or or dropped, and whole new one have cropped up.

But all things considered this is a good book, and a nice read, and makes a dandy reference.

This book is the first attempt at identifying and describing issues related to the employment of nonlethal alternatives in peace keeping, peace making and peace enforcement operations as well as local law enforcement. It is an "easy read" with many illustrations and anecdotes. The information is well-documented and the bibliography provides a strong foundation for further research.

John Alexander really knows his stuff. His though provoking book is must reading for anyone interested in where technology is taking us in the military or law enforcement. Non-lethal weapons are essential to the nation's future and John's book conveys the "why".

John has been a pioneer in the area of non-lethal weapons, if not the actual inventor of the concept. Having worked with him in this area of technology, I know his expertise is phenomenal. Clearly written and acually prophetic in many ways, John's text paints an eerie picture of the future. Significant in its detailing of technology, the book also deals with the policy issues and circumstances requiring non-lethal weapons.

This book is a "must read" for anyone seriously dealing with future weaponry, military and law enforcement trends, or the directions of technology. Highly recommended.

As US/Allied forces this very day are engaging in military operations against Iraq, the emphasis is not only on victory but on the minimization of casualties, both military and civilian. This book discusses several approaches to the latter, via the use of "non-lethal" weapons, and some of these may in fact be employed in Operation Iraq Freedom. The discussion is fascinating, and one can only hope that future technological developments will make war less probable because of the ideas expoused by the author. In the foreword to the book, the author lets Tom Clancy remind the reader of the unique American viewpoint on warfare. Americans, because of the nature of the government in which they have chosen to create and participate, have always been reluctant to go to war. Every soldier is precious, indeed, human life is precious, and is not to be taken lightly. It is therefore not a surprise that precision-guided and non-lethal weapons have and are undergoing intense development in the last two decades in the United States. Hopefully this attitude will continue in this, the best of all centuries. The author seems confident that it will, and indeed we are fortunate to have individuals in the U.S. military who have his attitude and share his philosophy.

Some of the more interesting technological developments in non-lethal weaponry discussed in the book include: 1. Electromagnetic weapons: man-portable laser weapons, blinding weapons, isotropic radiator weapons, pulse weapons, stun guns. 2. Chemical non-lethal weapons: antimateriel chemical agents, superacids, pheromones. 3. Acoustic weapons, such as pulsed periodic stimulus, which causes perceptual disorientation in the individual.