John B. Alexander
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John Alexander (born 1937) is a retired US Army Colonel and a leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons.
He holds a Ph.D from Walden University.
He Joined the army in 1956 and retired in 1988 after serving among other things with research and development, special ops, and as green berets commander.
During his time in the army he showed interest in esoteric techniques similar to those explored by Lt. Col. Jim Channon in his First Earth Battalion manual. For example neuro-linguistic programming with which he hoped to create "Jedi warriors". (according to himself in his 1990 book The Warrior's Edge).
After his retirement Dr. Alexander joined Los Alamos National Laboratory where he developed the concept of Non-Lethal Defense. He conducted briefings on non-lethal warfare at the highest levels of government, participated in a Council on Foreign Relations study of non-lethal weapons and chaired the first major conference on the topic.
Currently he is a member of the National Research Council Committee for Assessment of Non-Lethal Weapons Science and Technology. His latest book is Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First-Century Warfare
Col. Alexander figures prominently in journalist Jon Ronson's book The Men Who Stare At Goats which examines the subject of New Age ideas influencing the military.
