Fighting Together, Moving Apart?

The project aims to examine the dynamic relationship between elites and masses in policy-making about common defence in the multi-level European system. Two overarching questions are at the heart of the project: What and how do elites and European mass publics think about greater (European) defence, security, and military integration? More specifically, the project seeks to achieve the following seven objectives: (1) studying what mass publics and security elites understand by “common defence”; (2) estimating the level of public support for or opposition to a vast array of possible forms of defence integration across Europe, including support for some form of European military; (3) exploring differences in citizen perceptions and preferences across regions within the EU; (4) identifying individual-level values, predispositions, attitudes, and demographic factors that shape support for or opposition to defence integration; (5) examining how elite cues, social cues, and real-world events affect defence integration attitudes; (6) analysing the interplay of media content, individual media exposure, and mass opinion toward European defence and security integration; and (7) evaluating how (and how accurately) elites perceive mass opinion toward European defence and security integration, and vice versa...

Further information on the project please find here.