Challenging the Laws of War by Technology, Blazing Nationalism and Militarism: Debating Chemical Warfare Before and After Ypres, 1899–1925

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Miloš Več

Published:

2017

The German gas attack of April 22, 1915, took place immediately after intense efforts in international law to make war more civilized and to restrict poisonous weapons. Legal restrictions on war technologies reached a provisional peak at the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907. During World War I, the attitude of the German military became more radical, to the point of evading and denying international law. The silence in the face of the poison-gas attack was deafening, even among German scholars of international law. Older traditions from the history of ideas and collective mentalities played a crucial role in this, especially the idea of raison de guerre or military necessity, which were supposed to annul international law in case of military emergency. After the end of World War I, there was a lively international discourse on the legality of the German approach. Their debate was marked by a strong nationalist polarization of viewpoints. In subsequent agreements between states, the prohibition of poison gas was rewritten and strengthened.

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