Losing on the Home Front? Battlefield Casualties, Media, and Public Support for Foreign Interventions

We study the impact of battlefield casualties and media coverage on public demand for war termination. Based on survey evidence from eight troop-sending NATO countries in the Afghanistan war, we find that fatalities increase public demand for withdrawal. Evidence from a survey experiment replicates these results. We leverage a news pressure design and find that major sporting matches occurring around the time of battlefield casualties (i) drive down subsequent press coverage, and (ii) significantly weaken the effect of casualties on support for war termination. These results highlight the important role that the media play in shaping public support for foreign military interventions.

JEL Classification: D72, D74, F51, F52, H56

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Fetzer, Thiemo and Souza, Pedro CL and Vanden Eynde, Oliver and Camarena, Kara Ross, Losing on the Home Front? Battlefield Casualties, Media, and Public Support for Foreign Interventions (May 2021). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP16102, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3846212