Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T09:16:16.846Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unthinkable and Tragic: The Psychology of Weapons Taboos in War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2013

Thomas M. Dolan
Thomas M. Dolan*
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida, Orlando. E-mail: thomas.dolan@ucf.edu
Get access

Abstract

Discussions of weapons taboos have failed to take into account the possibility that prescriptive international and national norms of behavior may come into conflict. Using psychological studies of trade-offs and protected values as a guide, this article argues that when these conflicts exist, the taboos' individual-level constraining effects can be vitiated. An analysis of General George Marshall's proposal to use chemical weapons against the Japanese in 1945 demonstrates that normative conflict can produce a readiness to violate weapons taboos. In these situations, state decisions to violate taboos may depend on the extent to which the perception of normative conflict is shared by other decision makers and society more generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 37 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Henry. 1985. Witness to Power: The Life of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy. Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. and extended ed. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Bargh, John A., and Chartrand, Tanya L.. 1999. The Unbearable Automaticity of Being. American Psychologist 54 (7):462–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bargh, John A., and Ferguson, Melissa J.. 2000. Beyond Behaviorism: On the Automaticity of Higher Mental Processes. Psychological Bulletin 126 (6):925–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron, Jonathan. 1997. Biases in the Quantitative Measurement of Values for Public Decisions. Psychological Bulletin 122 (1):72–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, Jonathan, and Leshner, Sarah. 2000. How Serious Are Expressions of Protected Values? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 6 (3):183–94.Google ScholarPubMed
Baron, Jonathan, and Spranca, Mark. 1997. Protected Values. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 70 (1):1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beauregard, Mario, Lévesque, Johanne, and Bourgouin, Pierre. 2001. Neural Correlates of Conscious Self-Regulation of Emotion. Journal of Neuroscience 21 (RC165):1–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bechara, Antoine, and Naqvi, Nasir. 2009. The Somatovisceral Components of Emotions and Their Role in Decision Making. In Handbook of Neuroscience for the Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 2, edited by Berntson, Gary G. and Cacioppo, John T., 745–61. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bechara, Antoine, Damasio, Hanna, Tranel, Daniel, and Damasio, Antonio R.. 1997. Deciding Advantageously Before Knowing the Advantageous Strategy. Science 275 (5304):1293–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beer, Jennifer S., Heerey, Erin A., Keltner, Dacher, Scabini, Donatella, and Knight, Robert T.. 2003. The Regulatory Function of Self-Conscious Emotion: Insights from Patients with Orbitofrontal Damage. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85 (4):594–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berger, Peter L., and Luckmann, Thomas. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, Leonard, and Harmon-Jones, Eddie. 2004. Toward an Understanding of the Determinants of Anger. Emotion 4 (2):107–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berntson, Gary G., and Cacioppo, John T., eds. 2009. Handbook of Neuroscience for the Behavioral Sciences. 2 Vols.Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berntson, Gary G., Norman, Greg J., and Cacioppo, John T.. 2009. Evaluative Processes. In Handbook of Neuroscience for the Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 2, edited by Berntson, Gary G. and Cacioppo, John T., 617–34. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blainey, Geoffrey. 1973. The Causes of War. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, Marilynn. 1991. The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 17 (5):475–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buell, Thomas B. 1980. Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Cardenas, Sonia. 2004. Norm Collision: Explaining the Effects of International Human Rights Pressure on State Behavior. International Studies Review 6 (2):213–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Tim. 2000. Against God-Inspired Conscience: The Perception of Gas Warfare as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, 1915–1939. War and Society 18 (1):47–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Hooge, Ilona E., Breugelmans, Seger M., and Zeelenberg, Marcel. 2008. Not So Ugly After All: When Shame Acts as Commitment Device. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95 (4):933–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downes, Alexander B. 2006. Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: The Causes of Civilian Victimization in War. International Security 30 (4):152–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eikenberry, Karl W. 1996. Take No Casualties. Parameters 26 (2):109–18.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1999. Alchemies of the Mind: Rationality and the Emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fiske, Alan P., and Tetlock, Philip E.. 1997. Taboo Trade-Offs: Reactions to Transactions That Transgress the Spheres of Justice. Political Psychology 18 (2):254–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Richard B. 1999. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Freeman, Karen. 1991. The Unfought Chemical War. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 47 (10):30–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fridja, Nico H. 1986. The Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fridja, Nico H. 2007. The Laws of Emotion. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Giangreco, D. M. 2009. Hell to Pay: Operation Downfall and the Invasion of Japan, 1945–47. Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute Press.Google Scholar
Goemans, Hein E. 2000. War and Punishment: The Causes of War Termination and the First World War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, Joshua D., Sommerville, R. Brian, Nystrom, Leigh E., Darley, John M., and Cohen, Jonathan D.. 2001. An fMRI Investigation of Emotional Engagement in Moral Judgment. Science 293 (5537):2105–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greene, Joshua D., Nystrom, Leigh E., Engell, Andrew D., Darley, John M., and Cohen, Jonathan D.. 2004. The Neural Bases of Cognitive Conflict and Control in Moral Judgment. Neuron 44 (2):389–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grossman, Dave. 1995. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. New York: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Groves, Percy Robert Clifford. 1927. The Influence of Aviation on International Relations. Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs 6 (3):133–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haidt, Jonathan. 2001. The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment. Psychological Review 108 (4):814–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haidt, Jonathan. 2007. The New Synthesis in Moral Psychology. Science 316 (5827):998–1002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hanselmann, Martin, and Tanner, Carmen. 2008. Taboos and Conflicts in Decision Making: Sacred Values, Decision Difficulty, and Emotions. Judgment and Decision Making 3 (1):51–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastie, Reid, and Dawes, Robyn M.. 2001. Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Herrmann, Richard K., and Shannon, Vaughn P.. 2001. Defending International Norms: The Role of Obligation, Material Interest, and Perception in Decision Making. International Organization 55 (3):621–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopf, Ted. 2002. Social Construction of International Politics: Identities and Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Houghton, David P. 2007. Reinvigorating the Study of Foreign Policy Decision Making: Toward a Constructivist Approach. Foreign Policy Analysis 3 (1):24–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huelfer, Evan Andrew. 2003. The “Casualty Issue” in American Military Practice: The Impact of World War I. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.Google Scholar
Hughes, Charles E., Lodge, Henry Cabot, Underwood, Oscar W., and Root, Elihu. 1922. Conference on the Limitation of Armament: Report of the American Delegation. American Journal of International Law 16 (2):159–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurd, Ian. 2007. Breaking and Making Norms: American Revisionism and Crises of Legitimacy. International Politics 44 (2/3):194–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D.P. 2004. Overconfidence and War: The Havoc and Glory of Positive Illusions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Daniel P. 1980. American Chemists and the Geneva Protocol. Isis 71 (3):426–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Herman. 1960. On Thermonuclear War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Knapp, Harry S. 1924. Treaty No. 2 of the Washington Conference. Political Science Quarterly 39 (2):201–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kowert, Paul, and Legro, Jeffrey. 1996. Norms, Identity, and their Limits: A Theoretical Reprise. In The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 451–97. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Krepon, Michael, and Caldwell, Dan, eds. 1991. The Politics of Arms Control Treaty Ratification. New York: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazarus, Richard S. 1991. Emotion and Adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey. 1997. Which Norms Matter? Revisiting the “Failure” of Internationalism. International Organization 51 (1):31–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Jennifer S., and Keltner, Dacher. 2000. Beyond Valence: Toward a Model of Emotion-Specific Influences on Judgment and Choice. Cognition and Emotion 14 (4):473–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Michael. 1993. Self-Conscious Emotions: Embarrassment, Pride, Shame, Guilt. In Handbook of Emotions, edited by Lewis, Michael and Haviland, Jeannette M., 742–56. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Liberman, Peter. 2006. An Eye for an Eye: Public Support for War Against Evildoers. International Organization 60 (3):687–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mandel, Robert. 1993. Chemical Warfare: Act of Intimidation or Desperation? Armed Forces and Society 19 (2):187–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1989. Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Marcus, George E. 2003. The Psychology of Emotion and Politics. In Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, edited by Sears, David O., Huddy, Leonie, and Jervis, Robert, 182–221. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, David, Yoo, Seung Hee, Nakagawa, Sanae, and 37 Members of the Multinational Study of Cultural Display Rules. 2008. Culture, Emotion Regulation, and Adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 94 (6):925–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKeown, Ryder. 2009. Norm Regress: U.S. Revisionism and the Slow Death of the Torture Norm. International Relations 23 (1):5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNaughton, Neil, and Corr, Philip J.. 2009. Central Theories of Motivation and Emotion. In Handbook of Neuroscience for the Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 2, edited by Berntson, Gary G. and Cacioppo, John T., 710–30. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.Google Scholar
Mercer, Johnathan. 2010. Emotional Beliefs. International Organization 64 (1):1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milburn, Andrew R. 2010. Breaking Ranks: Dissent and the Military Professional. Joint Forces Quarterly 59:101–7.Google Scholar
Moon, John Ellis Van Courtland. 1984. Chemical Weapons and Deterrence: The World War II Experience. International Security 8 (4):3–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moon, John Ellis Van Courtland. 1989. Chemical Warfare: A Forgotten Lesson. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 45 (6):40–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, John Ellis Van Courtland. 1996. United States Chemical Warfare Policy in World War II: A Captive of Coalition Policy? Journal of Military History 60 (3):495–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsson, Andreas, and Öhman, Arne. 2009. The Affective Neuroscience of Emotion: Automatic Activation, Interoception, and Emotion Regulation. In Handbook of Neuroscience for the Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 2, edited by Berntson, Gary G. and Cacioppo, John T., 731–44. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.Google Scholar
The Papers of George Catlett Marshall. 1981–2003. 5 Vols., edited by Bland, Larry I. and Ritenour, Sharon R.. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Parker, Geoffrey. 2010. States Make War but Wars Also Break States. Journal of Military History 74 (1):11–34.Google Scholar
Paul, T.V. 1995. Nuclear Taboo and War Initiation in Regional Conflicts. Journal of Conflict Resolution 39 (4):696–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogue, Forrest C. 1963. George C. Marshall: Education of a General, 1880–1939. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Pogue, Forrest C. 1967. George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 1939–1942. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Pogue, Forrest C. 1973. George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory, 1943–1945. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Potter, Elmer Belmont. 1976. Nimitz. Annapolis, Md.: U.S. Naval Institute Press.Google Scholar
Price, Richard. 1995. A Genealogy of the Chemical Weapons Taboo. International Organization 49 (1):73–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, Richard. 1997. The Chemical Weapons Taboo. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Price, Richard. 1998. Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines. International Organization 52 (3):613–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, Richard, and Tannenwald, Nina. 1996. Norms and Deterrence: The Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Taboos. In The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 114–52. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Quester, George H. 2005. If the Nuclear Taboo Gets Broken. Naval War College Review 58 (2):70–91.Google Scholar
Ritov, Ilana, and Baron, Jonathan. 1999. Protected Values and Omission Bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 79 (2):79–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schelling, Thomas C. 1960. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Scherer, Klaus R., Schorr, Angela, and Johnstone, Tom. 2001. Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, Vaughn P. 2000. Norms Are What States Make of Them: The Political Psychology of Norm Violation. International Studies Quarterly 44 (2):293–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, Vaughn P., and Keller, Jonathan W.. 2007. Leadership Style and International Norm Violation: The Case of the Iraq War. Foreign Policy Analysis 3 (1):79–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, Vaughn P., and Kowert, Paul A., eds. 2012. Psychology and Constructivism in International Relations: An Ideational Alliance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Slotten, Hugh R. 1990. Humane Chemistry or Scientific Barbarism? American Responses to World War I Poison Gas, 1915–1930. Journal of American History 77 (2):476–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Eliot R., Seger, Charles R., and Mackie, Diane M.. 2007. Can Emotions Be Truly Group Level? Evidence Regarding Four Conceptual Criteria. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 93 (3):431–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tangney, June P., Niedenthal, Paula M., Covert, Michelle V., and Barlow, Deborah H.. 1998. Are Shame and Guilt Related to Distinct Self-Discrepancies? A Test of Higgins's (1987) Hypotheses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75 (1):256–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tannenwald, Nina. 1999. The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Normative Basis of Nuclear Non-Use. International Organization 53 (3):433–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tannenwald, Nina. 2005. Stigmatizing the Bomb: Origins of the Nuclear Taboo. International Security 29 (4):5–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E. 2000. Coping with Trade-Offs: Psychological Constraints and Political Implications. In Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality, edited by Lupia, Arthur, McCubbins, Matthew D., and Popkin, Samuel L., Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E. 2002. Social Functionalist Frameworks for Judgment and Choice: Intuitive Politicians, Theologians, and Prosecutors. Psychological Review 109 (3):451–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tetlock, Philip E., Kristen, Orie V., Elson, S. Beth, Green, Melanie C., and Lerner, Jennifer S.. 2000. The Psychology of the Unthinkable: Taboo Trade-Offs, Forbidden Base Rates, and Heretical Counterfactuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78 (5):853–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tetlock, Philip E., Peterson, Randall S., and Lerner, Jennifer S.. 1996. Revising the Social Pluralism Model: Incorporating Social Content and Context Postulates. In The Psychology of Values, edited by Seligman, Clive, Olson, James M., and Zanna, Mark P., 25–52. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tracy, Jessica L., and Robins, Richard W.. 2004. Putting the Self into Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model. Psychological Inquiry 15 (2):103–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, Jonathan B. 2006. War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Ward, Thomas. 2000. Norms and Security: The Case of International Assassination. International Security 25 (1):105–33.Google Scholar
Ward, Thomas. 2001. The Ethics of Destruction: Norms and Force in International Relations. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Weekly, Terry M. 1989. Proliferation of Chemical Warfare: Challenge to Traditional Restraints. Parameters 19 (4):51–66.Google Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, Michael O. 1979. Loyalty, Honor, and the Modern Military. In War, Morality, and the Military Profession, edited by Wakin, Malham M., 179–88. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar