We are proud to announce that our director Michal Smetana has been awarded a five-year ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million EUR for his project ‘Microfoundations of Collective Defence’, which will utilise advanced methods in experimental political science, international relations and political psychology to explore the public opinion in military alliances across key NATO member states.

The primary focus of his research will be on individuals’ opinions, examining their formation and influence on public opinion, as well as the views of decision-makers in allied states. The main innovation of the project is its methodological advancement which involves immersive mixed-media experiments to create a fully realistic experience for the participants.

The project will answer three main questions:

How do individuals develop attitudes towards allied assistance in various defence scenarios?
How do these attitudes aggregate into public opinion shaped by societal influences?
How does public opinion then impact decision-makers in allied states?

In a time of increasing security instability, the results of this research could shift the very understanding of how public opinion influences military alliances. The more we are able to understand this phenomenon, the higher chance we have of adequately reacting to future conflicts.

You can read more about the project here.