WELCOME TO THE Nuclear taboo database

Welcome to our database of academic literature that examines one of the most intriguing puzzles in our field: why nuclear weapons have not been used in military conflict since 1945.


Have you found an error or feel like a relevant article is missing? Let us know!

You can download the database overview table here.

Featured
2023, article
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Son, Ham and Yim: How fear of entrapment shapes South Korean public opinion on conflicts with North Korea under US extended deterrence
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The Nonproliferation Review | 2023 | article | survey

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Smetana, Vranka and Rosendorf: Elite-public gaps in support for nuclear and chemical strikes: New evidence from a survey of British parliamentarians and citizens
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Research & Politics | 2024 | article | survey

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Slovic, Mertz, Markowitz, Quist and Västfjäll: Virtuous Violence from the War Room to Death Row
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2020 | article | survey

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Schwartz and Tierney: Us and Them: Foreign Threat and Domestic Polarization
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Journal of Conflict Resolution | 2024 | article | survey

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Schwartz: When Foreign Countries Push the Button
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International Security | 2024 | article | survey

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Sagan and Valentino: Atomic Arguments and Counter-Arguments: How Exposure to Conflicting Information Influences American Public Support for the Use of Nuclear Weapons
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International Studies Review | 2025 | article | survey

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Reddie and Goldblum: Evidence of the unthinkable: Experimental wargaming at the nuclear threshold
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Journal of Peace Research | 2023 | article | survey

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Pomeroy: Hawks Become Us: The Sense of Power and Militant Foreign Policy Attitudes
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Security Studies | 2024 | article | survey

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Onderco, Etienne and Smetana: Ideology and the Red Button: How Ideology Shapes Nuclear Weapons’ Use Preferences in Europe
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Foreign Policy Analysis | 2022 | article | survey

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Kreps and Schneider: Escalation firebreaks in the cyber, conventional, and nuclear domains: moving beyond effects-based logics
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Journal of Cybersecurity | 2019 | article | survey

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Koch: Punishment and blame: How core beliefs affect support for the use of force in a nuclear crisis
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Conflict Management and Peace Science | 2024 | article | survey

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Justwan and Berejikian: Conditional Assistance: Entrapment Concerns and Individual-Level Support for US Alliance Partners Get access Arrow
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Journal of Global Security Studies | 2023 | article | survey

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Ju and Byun: Under No Circumstances? What the Chinese Really Think about the Wartime Use of Nuclear Weapons
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International Studies Quarterly | 2024 | article | survey

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Goddard and Larkin: Nuclear Shibboleths: The Logics and Future of Nuclear Nonuse
article, 2024
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International Organization | 2025 | article | review article

article, 2024
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Cheng, Eguchi, Nakagawa, Shibata and Tago: Another test of nuclear taboo: An experimental study in Japan
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International Area Studies Review | 2023 | article | survey

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2021, article
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Carpenter, Montgomery and Nylen: Breaking Bad? How Survey Experiments Prime Americans for War Crimes
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Perspectives on Politics | 2021 | article | survey

Note: Replication of Sagan and Valentino (2017)

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Brutger, Kertzer, Renshon, Tingley and Weiss: Abstraction and Detail in Experimental Design
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American Journal of Political Science | 2023 | article | survey

Note: Replication of Press, Sagan and Valentino (2013)

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Blair, Chu and Schwartz: The Two Faces of Opposition to Chemical Weapons: Sincere Versus Insincere Norm-Holders
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Journal of Conflict Resolution | 2022 | article | survey

Note: As an extension of their survey experiment on chemical weapons, the authors test

whether their findings are generalizable to the context of nuclear weapons use

article, 2022
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article, 2019
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Aronow, Baron and Pinson: A Note on Dropping Experimental Subjects who Fail a Manipulation Check
article, 2019
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Political Analysis | 2019 | article | survey

Note: Replication of Press, Sagan and Valentino (2013)

article, 2019
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Bell: The Nuclear Taboo and the Inevitability of Uncertainty.
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Security Studies | 2023 | article | review article

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Braut-Hegghammer: Birds of a Feather? Probing Cross-National Variation in Nuclear Inhibitions.
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Security Studies | 2023 | article | review article

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Dill, Sagan and Valentino: Public Opinion and the Nuclear Taboo Across Nations: An Exchange – The Authors Reply.
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Security Studies | 2023 | article | review article

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Joshi: Who Is Getting Nuked? Nuclear Taboo, Adversary Types, and Atomic Dispositions.
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Security Studies | 2023 | article | review article

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Onderco, Smetana and Etienne: Hawks in the making? European public views on nuclear weapons post-Ukraine.
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Global Policy | 2023 | article | survey

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Pelopidas and Egeland: Thinking about What People Think about Nuclear Weapons.
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Security Studies | 2023 | article | review article

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Smetana, Vranka and Rosendorf: The “Commitment Trap” Revisited: Experimental Evidence on Ambiguous Nuclear Threats.
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Journal of Experimental Political Science | 2023 | article | survey

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2022, article
Asal, Avdan and Ackerman: Breaking taboos: Why insurgents pursue and use CBRN weapons.
2022, article

Journal of Peace Research | 2022 | article

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Smetana and Onderco: Elite-Public Gaps in Attitudes to Nuclear Weapons: New Evidence from a Survey of German Citizens and Parliamentarians.
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International Studies Quarterly | 2022 | article | survey

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Bowen, Goldfien and Graham: Public Opinion and Nuclear Use: Evidence from Factorial Experiments.
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Journal of Politics | 2022 | article | survey

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2022, article
Doyle: Preserving the nuclear taboo after a nuclear first-use event: a nuclear ethical analysis.
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The Nonproliferation Review | 2022 | article

2022, article