The Chemical Weapons Taboo

To explore the origins and meaning of the chemical weapons taboo, Richard Price presents a series of case studies from World War I through the Gulf War of 1990-91. He traces the moral arguments against gas warfare from the Hague Conferences at the turn of the century through negotiations for the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. From the Italian invasion of Ethiopia to the war between Iran and Iraq, chemical weapons have been condemned as the 'poor man's bomb.' Drawing upon insights from Michel Foucault to explain the role of moral norms in an international arena rarely sensitive to such pressures, he focuses on the construction of and mutations in the refusal to condone chemical weapons.