What Wins American Support for Ukraine Aid: Values and Norms versus Economic Cost

• In Event: The Public Opinion Factor in US-Ukraine Relations

Abstract

How moveable is public opinion on providing military aid to foreign countries at war? This paper focuses on the role of values in shaping support in the United States for providing military assistance to Ukraine in its war with Russia. The core of the study is a November 2024 survey, shortly after the re-election of Donald Trump to the American presidency, that included an experiment designed to study whether citizens exposed to an argument about the economic costs of such aid (an argument made frequently by aid’s critics) can be persuaded to support such aid by appeals to religious values, international norms, and/or security appeals. It finds that appeals to the importance of religious freedom enhance willingness to endorse military aid, as do warnings about the need to uphold principles of territorial integrity in the face of aggressors, but that admonitions that failing to stop Russian expansion now will harm US security have no significant effect.

Author

• Henry E. Hale, George Washington U