Can conflicts unite a nation

Abstract

Despite the global commitment to fostering peace, the world suffers from violent conflicts. Related literature connects intrastate ethnic conflicts to polarization, but the relationship between the other types of conflicts and polarization is unclear. I build a simple model showing that conflicts initiated by an external aggressor can reduce the political polarization of a country. Furthermore, using regional panel data from Georgia and Ukraine, I assess how violent conflicts in the form of foreign state supported territorial disputes are related to the region-specific political support for the winner in presidential and parliamentary elections. The analysis suggests that differences in political preferences across regions decrease after a conflict. Finally, I confirm a negative association between conflicts and political polarization using country-level data from around the world. A shift in political preferences away from left-wing public policies is an important channel for a decline in political polarization after a violent conflict