Thinking The Ukraine War: How The Public in Six European Countries Discusses of War And Peace

Is public opinion Europeanized when talking about peace and war in Europe? The Russian aggression to Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022, marked the return of traditional war to the European continent. For the first time since WWII, an international conflict reached the European publics, concretely affecting citizens’ lives and the way they understand international relations. While commentators have discussed the origins, characteristics and potential consequences of the war at length, much less is known on how and what the public thinks about the war. Drawing upon a unique set of data from a series of focus groups debating foreign policy issues carried out in six European countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Poland) in the month of June and July 2022, the paper intends to shed light on how the general public thinks of war, as well as what role citizens conceive for their own countries and the EU in the Ukraine conflict. By carrying out a systematic content analysis of twelve focus groups (2 per country) across the six European countries, the paper explores how lay people discusses the causes, effects and consequences of this war, looking not only at the content of what they think but also at the way they organize their own beliefs and opinions about such a baleful event.