What used to be CNN’s most covered topic, making up 8% of its airtime, now represents less than 1%. The war in Ukraine is receiving less and less attention. The same goes for the public. Unless you’re a privileged public policy student at Hertie (even better if you’re in the Security concentration), according to polls, you’re likely asking for an early end to the war—even at the cost of territorial loss. (In Czechia, this number reached two-thirds of the population, and let’s not even talk about Hungary and Slovakia.) Some call it war fatigue—but maybe it’s really just a diminishing attention span. Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine did not last 60 seconds like a bad TikTok video.
In a world of trends and doom scrolling, our attention span seems to mirror that of social media. This shows a larger problem: our ability to sustain focus on long-term crises when they compete with each other to gain center stage. We will pay the consequences of this issue not just with Ukraine, but also with climate change, Gaza, and any issue that spans more than a few months. But what happens when we let war fatigue dictate our priorities?
Let me take you back to 1938, to a city just one delayed ICE away—Munich. One (me) might argue that our distracted and fatigued culture resembles that of past appeasement politics. What back then led to the sacrifice of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to avoid a large-scale war somewhat closely resembles the intention of accepting a deal where Putin gets to keep occupied territories of Ukraine. Not only did the sacrifice of the Sudetenland region make Czechoslovak people pretty angry, it also did not prevent war. Maybe giving in to dictators’ conditionalities is, after all, not the best idea.
War fatigue needs to be overcome, and short-term distractions need to be confronted to avoid long-term consequences. Closely following the realities of war and crises can take a toll on our mental health, but with increased mental health resilience, media literacy, and citizen engagement, I believe that we can do it. So the next time you’re told to finally move on—politely refuse.
Aneta is a Master of International Affairs (European Governance) candidate at the Hertie School, holding a BSc in Political Science from Leiden University. Her academic focus lies in EU policy, sustainability, and security.
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