The excitation and relaxation of the vibrations of CO₂ as well as the reduction of CO₂ to CO are studied in a pulsed glow discharge. Two diagnostics are employed, being (1) time-resolved in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and (2) spatiotemporally resolved in situ rotational Raman spectroscopy. Experiments are conducted within a pressure range of 1.3-6.7 mbar and a current range of 10-50 mA. In the afterglow, the rate of exponential decay from the asymmetric stretch temperature (T₃) to the rotational temperature (T_rot) is found to be only dependent on T_rot, in the conditions under study. The decay rate ρ_T3-Trot follows the relation ρ_T3-Trot = 388 s^-1 exp((T_rot - 273 K)/(154 K)). Pressure and varying concentrations of CO and (presumably) atomic oxygen did not show to be of significant influence. In the active part of the discharge the excitation of T₃ showed to be positively related to current and negatively to pressure. However, the contribution of current to vibrational excitation is ambiguous: the conversion of CO₂ and therefore the fraction of CO in the discharge, is found to be strongly dependent on the current, with a conversion factor of 0.05 to 0.18 for 10 mA to 50 mA, while CO can contribute to the excitation through near-resonant collisions. A clear relation between the elevation of T₃ and the dissociation of CO₂ could not be confirmed, though conversion peaks are observed in the near afterglow, which motivate future experiments on vibrational ladder-climbing directly after termination of the discharge.