The wars of others: The effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Spanish nationalism

Laia Balcells
Juan F Tellez
Francisco Villamil

The Journal of Politics, 2024 (doi/10.1086/726939).

Media/outreach:

• The Impact of Distant Wars on Nationalism: Lessons from Spain (The JOP Blog)
• Las guerras de los otros: ¿cómo nos afectan políticamente? (Piedras de Papel, elDiario.es)

Abstract:

Wars can produce drastic changes in the attitudes and behavior of the citizens of the countries involved in the fighting. Yet such conflicts also have important security and economic implications for uninvolved, ‘third-party‘ states. How do the wars of others shape domestic public attitudes? We explore this question by analyzing the effect of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on Spanish nationalism. Exploiting a natural experiment in Spain, we show that the Russian invasion caused a general increase in the salience of Spanish national identification, but not at the expense of regional or substate national identities. We also find an activation effect on electoral participation and increased support for taxation. Our study illuminates pathways through which international conflicts can impact domestic politics in third-party states.

Figure: Effect of invasion of Ukraine

Citation:

Balcells, Laia, Juan F Tellez, and Francisco Villamil (2024) The wars of others: The effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Spanish nationalism. The Journal of Politics 86(1): 352-357.

@article{balcells2024wars,
  title={The wars of others: the effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Spanish nationalism},
  author={Balcells, Laia and Tellez, Juan Fernando and Villamil, Francisco},
  journal={The Journal of Politics},
  volume={86},
  number={1},
  pages={352--357},
  year={2024}
}