Total prohibition beats partial limits as a tacit agreement focus

Evidence

Gas was not used in World War II. The agreement, though not without antecedents, was largely a tacit one. It is interesting to speculate on whether any alternative agreement concerning poison gas could have been arrived at without formal communication (or even, for that matter, with communication). “Some gas” raises complicated questions of how much, where, under what circumstances: “no gas” is simple and unambiguous. Gas only on military personnel; gas used only by defending forces; gas only when carried by vehicle or projectile; no gas without warning—a variety of limits is conceivable; some may make sense, and many might have been more impartial to the outcome of the war. But there is a simplicity to “no gas” that makes it almost uniquely a focus for agreement when each side can only conjecture at what rules the other side would propose and when failure at coordination on the first try may spoil the chances for acquiescence in any limits at all. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 191

Categorization

• XREF: Directly grounds the reader’s Milgrom-arbitration mapping: binary bright-line rules coordinate where graded rules fail — same logic as coordinational equilibria and focal points. — connects to: Constitutional adjudication can achieve total prohibition where legislation cannot — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 10912; Tacit agreements need qualitatively distinct terms that may discriminate against one party — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 190; Total bans like Prohibition fail without corresponding enforcement capacity — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 820
• DEFINE: Defines the qualitative-bright-line principle of tacit agreements: ‘no gas’ is a focal point that ‘some gas’ cannot match.

Related

• Tacit agreements need qualitatively distinct terms that may discriminate against one party (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Constitutional adjudication can achieve total prohibition where legislation cannot #corroborates (0.80) — , The Rod and the Child, 10912
• Tacit agreements need qualitatively distinct terms that may discriminate against one party #expands (0.75) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 190