Dilemmas of War and Peace in Ukraine
Institutional Affiliation
George Mason University
Start Date
15-1-2026 9:30 AM
End Date
15-1-2026 10:30 AM
Proposal Type
Presentation
Proposal Format
On-campus
Proposal Description
The Russia-Ukraine War raises an important question about whether a stable peace settlement is possible. To advance understanding of how people’s wartime experiences influence their positions toward peace agreements, this project seeks to uncover the social psychological processes and wartime experiences informing the dispositions of ordinary Ukrainians toward peace. The scholarly literature suggests divergent impacts of war experience on attitude towards the costs of peace. One line of evidence suggests that direct exposure to violence and destruction may increase Ukrainians’ perception of immediate threat, which may in turn increase their willingness to support territorial concessions as a means to end violent hostilities. Other lines of evidence suggest that anger, threats to Ukrainian identity and values, and desire to honor the sacrifice of those who died defending Ukrainian land, may harden attitudes toward territorial compromises. In this context, War may have made all Ukrainian territory a ‘sacred value’ (absolute and non-negotiable) to ordinary Ukrainians. This would reduce the possibility of territorial compromise, and make any settlement potentially unstable. This study uses multiple methods to explore the complex factors that come into play as people work to resolve these dilemmas. The project includes collection and quantitative analysis of survey data from a large sample of Ukrainians, including locals and internally displaced people, across three towns close to the regions where active fighting is taking place.
Dilemmas of War and Peace in Ukraine
The Russia-Ukraine War raises an important question about whether a stable peace settlement is possible. To advance understanding of how people’s wartime experiences influence their positions toward peace agreements, this project seeks to uncover the social psychological processes and wartime experiences informing the dispositions of ordinary Ukrainians toward peace. The scholarly literature suggests divergent impacts of war experience on attitude towards the costs of peace. One line of evidence suggests that direct exposure to violence and destruction may increase Ukrainians’ perception of immediate threat, which may in turn increase their willingness to support territorial concessions as a means to end violent hostilities. Other lines of evidence suggest that anger, threats to Ukrainian identity and values, and desire to honor the sacrifice of those who died defending Ukrainian land, may harden attitudes toward territorial compromises. In this context, War may have made all Ukrainian territory a ‘sacred value’ (absolute and non-negotiable) to ordinary Ukrainians. This would reduce the possibility of territorial compromise, and make any settlement potentially unstable. This study uses multiple methods to explore the complex factors that come into play as people work to resolve these dilemmas. The project includes collection and quantitative analysis of survey data from a large sample of Ukrainians, including locals and internally displaced people, across three towns close to the regions where active fighting is taking place.