Chemical weapons have long occupied a distinctive position in the moral, legal, and psychological landscape of warfare. Despite often causing fewer casualties than conventional weapons, their use has repeatedly generated disproportionate fear, social disruption, and political response. This article examines the psychological and sociological effects of chemical weapons across historical and contemporary contexts, with particular attention to the ways in which fear has been produced, amplified, and strategically exploited. Drawing on a qualitative historical–comparative methodology, the study integrates archival material, medical and psychological research, military doctrine, and modern case studies from the Middle East to analyse how chemical weapons function not only as instruments of physical harm but as mechanisms of psychological coercion. The analysis demonstrates that characteristics intrinsic to chemical agents—such as invisibility, delayed and uncertain effects, and associations with contamination—generate heightened anxiety among both combatants and civilians. These effects were evident during the First World War, where gas alerts frequently produced mass panic and behavioural change even in the absence of actual exposure, and persist in modern conflicts, where limited or improvised chemical attacks have elicited widespread fear, media amplification, and international intervention. The article further explores how military actors have consciously leveraged these psychological dynamics, employing chemical weapons or their threat as “fear multipliers” to influence morale, civilian behaviour, and political outcomes. By situating chemical weapons within broader theories of risk perception, mass behaviour, and strategic deterrence, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of why chemical warfare continues to exert outsized psychological influence. The findings have implications for military doctrine, international law, civilian preparedness, and humanitarian response, and underscore the need to address psychological harm as a central component of chemical weapons policy and prevention.
Kim Robin Thuemler (Tue,) studied this question.