The Challenge of Exotic Weapons

Introduction

The notion of exotic weapons being secretly developed by government and private sector scientists and engineers has become an essential reality of the military industrial complex of advanced industrialized countries. The high tech creations are becoming an integral part of what has been termed the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Large scale programs of research and development using the best minds and modern scientific techniques have evolved rapidly to a point where the Twenty-First Century developments could drastically change the nature and meaning of warfare as we know it in Twentieth Century context. These changes go beyond the high-tech, precision guided, yet seemingly antiseptic nature of warfare made evident in the Gulf War in 1991. Implications on when and how states intervene in conflict, what they agree to ban or restrict by treaty and what human rights might be violated, could all be subject to this revolution. The public pressure on governments of combatant states to minimize casualties, particularly battle deaths may produce a new set of complexities which could blur the line between lethal and non-lethal weapons, often at the hands of components and weapons systems that have been termed exotic. Exotic weapons may not only change conceptions of warfare or negatively affect arms control, disarmament conventions and, human rights but also the norms and corresponding regimes meant to uphold them.

There is an equally disturbing but well-known trend that also has negative implications. The current economic context is marked by an increasingly interdependent world marked by trade, government policy to reduce barriers and fostering free movement of goods and services in open markets internationally. The threat of dual-use technologies that might make up many exotic weapons, will find their way to high risk states and non-state actors in the same fashion that components for chemical, biological, nuclear and other armaments proliferated in the global market in the past few decades. Exotic weapons are also an emerging security threat but the threat is difficult to discern because of the secretive nature of government projects and, the perception that any concern for these weapons systems are unfounded and only the bane of conspiracy theorists. However, developments in the 1990’s and recent events internationally, have presented new concerns. High-level public servants, scientists and NGO’s in various countries have raised caution. While public awareness is still minimal on the subject, it is increasing. Several questions arise concerning exotic weapons development that need to be addressed.

What are these weapons? Who and what is threatened? What are the implications on the ability of the international community to use traditional tools of arms control and disarmament? This paper hopes to provide the department and policy community with some insights into the sensitive issues that are emerging because of exotic weapons both domestically and internationally. This paper seeks first to give shape to a workable definition of what makes up or should be categorized as an exotic weapon.

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