TAMP ‘EM UP SOLID:
What Public Opinion Says About the Use of Nuclear Weapons (Jacqueline L. Hazelton, MIT Press Reader)
The U.S. public is widely assumed to believe that nuclear weapons use is bad. But new research by Joshua Schwartz, an assistant professor at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology, finds high support for their use, even when foreign countries press the nuclear “button.” […]
Surprisingly, my research finds high support for hypothetical nuclear use, even when foreign countries press the nuclear “button.” In four survey experiments involving members of the public in the United States and India, support for hypothetical nuclear use is the same when an individual’s own country hypothetically uses nuclear weapons as when a foreign allied or partner country hypothetically uses nuclear weapons. For example, in one study on the U.S. public, support for a hypothetical nuclear attack against Iran was no different when Israel carried it out compared to the United States. Overall, I found that the use of nuclear weapons is not taboo in the United States and India. But support is lower when the public considers a non-allied or non-partner country’s hypothetical use of nuclear weapons.