PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Since February 24, Russia has been waging an inexorable war in Ukraine, although it does not describe the war as such. The situation in Ukraine, the violence, threats, and uncertain situation of people shooked the foundation of the long-believed European peace and caused controversial societal and political debates. The war, which is still lasting in July 2022, makes citizens face the cold reality of war accompanied by an increased volume of securitization discourse framed with a state of uncertainty. Peace and conflict research shows that such a war is not only an armed conflict between two parties, but it is also the conflict of memories, meanings, and images in people’s minds, and it is only legitimate when justified by the public (Linden and Licata, 2012). As a country that is still confronted with its world war past and trying to learn from it in a responsible way, Germany is experiencing the interplay of different political and social dynamics in its diverse society regarding the attitudes toward war and peace. With the beginning of the war, we decided to run an independent and non-granted convenient survey on the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of German citizens. We conducted the Bielefeld Peace Survey (BIEFrie) to understand the social and political psychological dynamics in times of nearly complete uncertainty about the roots and causes of what is happening. Data for the first round was collected between May and June 2022 from a large online sample (N=1048, net sample). Resting on a heuristic psychological model of civic engagement, the survey questioned how people conceptualize the war in Ukraine and how intergroup emotions, uncertainty, and the belief in peace play roles in justifying it. The study is expected to shed light on the relations between political conflicts, political reasoning, and uncertainty under the influence of an ongoing war, and it will ask for implications for developing peace strategies that need to follow and should take peace psychological evidence into account.