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Berkeley 2002 Resolution Sweeps Through Canada

5 April 2008, 19:57

Dear Sir, Madam,
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Chris McHale, March 2003

The Challenge of Exotic Weapons

http://www.dfait.gc.ca/arms/isrop/research/mchale_2003_exotic_weapons/menu-en.asp#toc

Quote: 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. …
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.

http://www.dfait.gc.ca/arms/isrop/research/mchale_2003_exotic_weapons/section01-en.asp

Definition and Categories

Quote: Exotic weapons might also be interchanged with other terms such as “wonder weapons,” often associated with weapons programs developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. Due to the multiple uses of the term, can a working definition be produced for exotic weapons? …
By manipulating physical components, chemical composition, concentration or manipulating DNA, non-lethal weapons could be made lethal and vice versa.

http://www.dfait.gc.ca/arms/isrop/research/mchale_2003_exotic_weapons/section02-en.asp

Current Issues: Possible Effects of Exotic Weapons on Warfare, Intervention and Security

Quote: Whether one considers exotic weapons to consist of technologies such as EMP, HMP or psychotronic weapons and in separate categories from those systems more traditionally recognized as non-lethal, there is an important commonality that both categories share. Any of these systems may make it easier for states to initiate a conflict or intervene from the outside into an existing conflict.

http://www.dfait.gc.ca/arms/isrop/research/mchale_2003_exotic_weapons/section06-en.asp

Conclusion
Quote: The domestic and international implications of the use and misuse of several exotic weapons and nonlethal variants are serious and require a higher priority by the Canadian government and international fora.

http://www.dfait.gc.ca/arms/isrop/research/mchale_2003_exotic_weapons/section07-en.asp

Yours sincerely.