A new sociological survey about the Ukrainian population’s attitude to our peacekeeping mission in Iraq, conducted by the Center for Social Forecasts in October 2003 among 1,214 respondents, revealed an important detail: this time the Ukrainians were far better informed about the very existence of the Ukrainian peacekeeping mission. A mere 2.6% of those polled do not know that a Ukrainian military force has been sent to Iraq. This is a direct result of the informational effort of the media which have been widely covering the Ukrainian peacekeeping mission in Iraq as well as the results of the first poll and the position of the Defense Ministry which amply informed the public about the peacekeeping mission’s nature and composition of the Ukrainian contingent in Iraq. On the whole, the results prove again that public opinion polls should precede making this kind of decision and the obtained results should be taken into account in preparing information support campaigns.
However, a higher level of being informed did not help to form a clear public attitude toward this issue because the number of those indifferent has increased twofold from 5.7% to 11.6%, while the number of “yes” and “no” votes has dropped by about 3% in each case. This means that the public is getting used to the peacekeeping mission as something that incurs no heavy casualties, leads to no more or less serious consequences, and drifts out of focus, superseded by some more essential foreign political conflicts which Ukraine has been drawn into. In other words, we observe a clear habituation effect, and the public no longer considers the presence of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Iraq as an acute and topical problem.
The fact that there are no radical changes in the attitude toward this problem means that the Ukrainian public opinion in the area of international relations is still characterized by sheer inertia. As the Ukrainians are inclined to be rather critical of governmental actions in any field, it is only natural that 59.7% (40.8% in August) of those polled are convinced that sending a military contingent to Iraq was not conducive to Ukraine’s higher international prestige, while the percentage of those who hold an opposite viewpoint has dropped from 37.6% to 30.4%. Ambiguous strategic vectors in the Ukrainian foreign policy and contradictory behavior of “strategic partners” towards Ukraine makes it extremely difficult for its citizens to assess the Ukrainian state’s concrete steps. Another factor is that the population of Ukraine is just ignorant of the true attitude of the world community toward Ukraine’s position. For instance, Ukraine’s international image has undergone changes for the better: influential foreign publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Japan Times, The Washington Times, The New York Times, have carried quite friendly articles on Ukraine, but this positive shift has not been marked in the public mind as a result of continued US-Ukrainian cooperation in Iraq.
It is obvious that the Ukrainian population still relies on stereotypes in forming its opinion on Ukraine’s international activities. As 63.8% think that troops were sent to Iraq above all for economic considerations, it becomes clear that the Ukrainian public does not understand what concrete dividends Ukraine will gain out of this operation because not a single ordinary Ukrainian has drawn any financial or material benefits from the fact that there are Ukrainian soldiers in Iraq. So the impression is there is no reason why this operation should be backed. The absence of concrete economic benefits for the Ukrainian grassroots and their a priori critical attitude to governmental policies caused 73.9% of those polled not to support this action, although the political dividends of Ukraine’s participation in the Iraq stabilization forces are obvious even now. (Interestingly enough, the survey Iraq and Peace in the World, conducted by the European Commission on October 8-16, shows that the Iraq peacekeeping mission gets the greatest support from the population of the countries that did not participate in the war.)
Those polled also have a vague idea about what countries are taking part in the peacekeeping effort. In this case, inadequate public knowledge (irrespective of educational level, age, gender, and place of residence) clearly devalues Ukraine’s reputation in the eyes of its own citizens because this country has seemingly got into a very “non-prestigious” company. This can also be interpreted as a result of the so-called counter-propaganda waged by the opponents of Ukraine’s mission in Iraq, who often twist the proven facts about the international peacekeeping force.
Most of the Ukrainian mass media have failed to take a clear stand while informing the public about what the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent is doing in Iraq. It is not enough to just report that it exists and performs certain functions. One must get the public to be interested, sympathetic, and proud. Unfortunately, there are just a few examples of this kind in the Ukrainian information space.
