Cooperation under fire : Anglo-German restraint during World War II / Jeffrey W. Legro.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Theories of Cooperation. Three Perspectives. The Method -- 2. Submarine Warfare. The Unleashing of the U-Boat. The Restraint of His Majesty's Submarines. American Escalation under the Pacific -- 3. Strategic Bombing. The Air Artillery of the Third Reich. Britain's Promiscuous Bombing -- 4. Chemical Warfare. The British Way of Chemical Warfare. A Typically German Weapon. The Silence of Soviet Chemical Warfare -- 5. Explaining Cooperation. An Explanation. A Conceptual Synthesis. Theoretical Implications -- Epilogue: The Future of Restraint -- Appendix: The Laws and Rules of Warfare.

Why do nations cooperate even as they try to destroy each other? Jeffrey Legro explores this question in the context of World War II, the "total" war that in fact wasn't. During the war, combatant states attempted to sustain agreements limiting the use of three forms of combat considered barbarous - submarine attacks against civilian ships, strategic bombing of civilian targets, and chemical warfare.

Looking at how these restraints worked or failed to work between such fierce enemies as Hitler's Third Reich and Churchill's Britain, Legro offers a new understanding of the dynamics of World War II and the sources of international cooperation.

While traditional explanations of cooperation focus on the relations between actors, Cooperation under Fire examines what warring nations seek and why they seek it - the "preference formation" that undergirds international interaction. Scholars and statesmen debate whether it is the balance of power or the influence of international norms that most directly shapes foreign policy goals.