Peacekeeping and Peacemaking. Peacekeeping and peacemaking are rapidly expanding roles for special operations as well as conventional forces. The use of minimal lethal force may be desirable in both situations. Nonlethal technologies may offer some solutions. In Somalia, soldiers confronted with a hostile crowd often had no options other than to fire upon the crowd. Effective nonlethal crowd control techniques might have been used.
One potential role for nonlethal weapons in a peacemaking scenario would be the ability to defeat the "iron sight." For example, in spite of all our technological successes in countering infrared and electronic threats, we have not developed a technique to defeat a lone sniper with a rifle, or a radar precision guided (RPG) or other optically guided weapon. Small numbers of snipers can wreak havoc on an entire city as they did in Sarajevo. They can also bring down helicopters as they did in Mogadishu, and they can also destroy the morale of a normally effective combat force. Lasers might offer an effective means of point defense and could even be used to counter snipers. For example, a relatively simple laser device strapped on a helicopter could be scanned to blind anyone looking in the direction of the aircraft. Likewise, a laser scanned around a compound or guard shack could blind anyone attempting to target the site. Indeed, by using the unique optical reflection signature from the back of the eye, a low power laser could be used to locate anyone persistently looking at a specific target.74 A human operator (or an automated system) could then decide whether to target the detected signature with a higherpowered laser weapon or even a lethal weapon. Disadvantages of this sophisticated antisniper device include possible indiscriminate targeting, adjustment of power levels to account for environmental conditions, and the possibility that the laser itself may provide a more sophisticated enemy with an emission source that could be targeted.
