The Stopping Power of Norms: Saturation Bombing, Civilian Immunity, and U.S. Attitudes toward the Laws of War

Scott Sagan and Benjamin Valentino's landmark survey of U.S. attitudes toward the laws of war found that Americans are relatively insensitive to the targeting of civilian populations and to international norms and taboos against the use of nuclear weapons. Charli Carpenter and Alexander Montgomery replicate a key question in this study and introduce variations into the experiment. The findings are more optimistic than Sagan and Valentino’s: Americans believe strongly that targeting civilians is wrong, and in a real-life scenario, a majority would likely oppose such action.