Chemical Warfare: Act of Intimidation or Desperation?

Recently the international community has experienced unprecedented alarm about the threat of chemical weapons. One crucial uninvestigated question concerning these munitions is whether they are arms of desperation, used defensively later in conflicts as a last resort, or arms of intimidation, used offensively earlier in conflicts to terrorize the victims. This study explores this question through a systematic survey of all confirmed cases of the use of chemical weapons in interstate wars since World War I, encompassing the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-36, the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45, the Egyptian-Yemeni War of 1963-67, the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1988, and the Iraq-Iran War of 1980-1988. The findings indicate that all of the cases evidenced an offensive intimidation mentality except for the Iraq-Iran War, which displayed a defensive desperation mindset.