A recent survey conducted ahead of the Munich Security Conference has revealed a decreased perception of the Russian war against Ukraine as a major global threat compared to last year’s results.
The Munich Security Index, which gathers respondents’ views on 32 different risks across 12 countries, aims to track changing trends over time. The survey includes representative samples of 1,000 people from the G7 countries and the BRICS, excluding Russia, with Ukraine also participating in specific questions. Data collection took place from late October to early November, utilizing reputable sociological companies in these countries, with a possible margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Nearly all indicators related to Russia’s war in Ukraine have declined compared to the end of 2022. In last year’s survey, Russia remained the highest risk in five G7 countries, but now only the UK and Japan hold this view. For Germans, concern about the Russian threat has moved to 7th place, for the French to 6th, and in Italy, it has dropped to 12th.
Overall, in the G7 countries, the Russian threat, which was perceived as the most significant problem in 2022, ranked fourth in the 2023 survey. There has been a noticeable increase in concern about potential mass migration or climate change, as well as about radical Islamist terrorism.
In the US, cyberattacks are seen as the greatest threat, followed by societal political polarization, with the threat from China in third place. Environmental and climate change-related indicators rank among the top three threats in nearly all surveyed countries.
Contrastingly, in the BRICS countries, as opposed to the West, the perception of Russia and Iran has remained unchanged, while the perception of China has improved.
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