Ethical dilemmas due to researcher nationality when studying armed conflict: The case of the Russia-Ukraine war

We argue that researcher nationality leads to unique ethical considerations when studying interstate armed conflict. This is because when two states engage in war, third states likely hold a foreign policy position on the conflict, making the nationality of researchers from those states especially salient to their positionality. Despite rich discussions of research ethics and insider-outsider identities in peace and conflict studies, the specific feature of nationality remains understudied. We explored what ethical considerations arose due to researcher nationality by conducting interviews with researchers studying Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, and identified three ethical dilemmas: that coming from a country supporting Ukraine led to misattributed gratitude to researchers, choosing to study a topic on which researchers know they are biased, and the risk of conducting extractive research as a foreigner. Researchers’ positionalities shifted across dilemmas, demonstrating they are context-dependent rather than static. By identifying and problematizing these ethical dilemmas, the study contributes to ongoing debates about the methodological challenges of studying war, and equips scholars to navigate them more effectively.