Rallying 'Round the School House: The Politicization of Education in Times of Conflict

Abstract

Theories of nation-building suggest that military conflict led to the expansion of compulsory education as part of broader efforts to foster citizen loyalty. In the post-World War II era, when access to education is nearly universal, the question shifts to whether and how conflict impacts educational content. Drawing on an expert-coded dataset covering education content worldwide from 1945 to 2021, we show that militarized, interstate disputes increase the politicization of education, particularly through the expansion of patriotic and political content. This effect is concentrated in consolidated autocracies with centralized policy authority. In these settings, educational reforms reflect deliberate strategies of ideological indoctrination and represent long-term investments to bolster regime stability and entrench power, rather than short-term responses to conflict. The paper's findings advance understanding of how growing international insecurity can lead modern states to politicize education.

Keywords: Patriotism, Education, War, External Threat, Conflict