AIR & SPACE POWER JOURNAL FALL 2021 57
AIR & SPACE POWER JOURNAL - TECHNOLOGY
Directed-Energy Weapons
An Option for Strategic De- Escalation
Alfred CAnnin
A strategist should think in terms of paralyzing, not killing. . . . And on a still higher plane,
psychological pressure on the government of a country may suce to cancel all the resources
at its command—so that the sword drops from a paralyzed hand.
—B. H. Liddell Hart, Strategy: The Indirect Approach
E
merging technological advances have provided multiple nonlethal options
to deter, deny, and incapacitate threats posed by new adversaries and
changing strategic implications. Directed- energy- weapon (DEW) op-
tions demonstrate, via an escalation of force from nonlethal to lethal, a direct
targeting capability with a high likelihood of low collateral damage and reduced
risk of civilian casualties.
e Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Oce, formerly the Joint Nonlethal
Weapons Directorate, is exploring the function and application of nonlethal
DEW defense technologies across the spectrum of conventional warfare and the
competition continuum. ese technologies will allow the US military to accom-
plish the mission while protecting friendly forces “without unnecessary destruc-
tion that initiates or prolongs expensive hostilities.”
1
Current binary decision-
