Framing public perception of the challenges to the EU Foreign Security and Defence Policy. Focus groups as a method of investigation

JOINT Research Papers nº 11

This report presents the results of twelve focus groups carried out in six European countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain) and addressing topics of concern for the study of EU foreign security and defence policy. In particular, participants were engaged in discussions on three main topics: (1) the most pressing international challenges and the role of the EU in addressing and responding to them; (2) the war in Ukraine; and (3) citizens’ view of the role of their country on a conflict or crisis in which the EU is involved (for France and Poland: Iran; for Germany and Greece: Serbia-Kosovo; for Italy and Spain: Libya).
The objective of such investigation was threefold: explorative, to understand how people envisage a complex reality such as the one related to international politics; interpretive, to inductively explore the ideas and feelings people have of problems in this policy sector; finally, constructive, to inform the design of a large scale, crossnational public opinion survey on the same topics to be conducted in May 2023.

Rossella Borri is Senior Researcher at the University of Siena
Pierangelo Isernia is Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Siena.
Carlotta Mingardi is Post-Doc Researcher at the University of Siena
Francesco Olmastroni is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Siena.

The authors thank Aude Thomas, Agnès Levallois, Gregor Walter-Drop, Charalampos Tsardanidis, Angelos Chryssogelos, Jorge Pinera, Pol Bargues, Riccardo Alcaro, Dario Cristiani, and Łukasz Kulesa for their contribution to the discussion in the focus groups.