The Myth of the Nuclear Taboo
Journal: Asian international studies review
Year: 2017

Why have nuclear weapons not been used since 1945? Cold War studies of mutual deterrence have been challenged in recent years by constructivist notions of an evolutionary norm of nuclear non-use. Most famously characterized as the “nuclear taboo,” this argument asserts that the norm has become a constitutive component of civilized international society. Herein, I consider the underlying causal logic behind nuclear non-use, finding that it is more a product of rationalist security calculations (d