Political Parties and the War in Ukraine: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

In recent years, it is widely accepted that some issues in domestic politics and international relations (IR) are entangled. One of these issues is the war in Ukraine and extensive research documents the positions of political parties. To date, we know that extreme, left and right parties are the most critical to the idea of supporting the Ukrainian army, while centrist parties are more supportive. Moreover, previous studies show that parties’ stances on military assistance may have an impact on government stability, voting in parliamentary debates on security and defense policies, in shaping European public opinion on foreign policy and in the quality of the dynamics between government and opposition. However, far less attention has been devoted to analyzing the positions of parties in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries towards the war in Ukraine. These countries are particularly relevant due to their geographic proximity to the conflict. This panel aims to fill this research gap and gathers papers that explore whether the war in Ukraine (2022-2026) functioned as a critical juncture in reshaping the parties' positions in CEE countries. The papers can address but are not limited to topics such as public debates, party ideology, parliamentary debates and voting; systemic and domestic conditions, or systemic and external variables in states’ behavior.