Originally published on the CGS blog on September 19, 2014.
I recently had the privilege of attending a panel hosted by the Woodrow Wilson Center. The panel was convened to discuss a new report from the Chicago Council concerning the notion that Americans have changed their viewpoints on foreign policy and believe that, as a nation, we should stay out of international affairs. While the panel itself made for a healthy discussion, the report was equally interesting, and I implore everyone to read it here.
In attendance at the panel were experts such as Ivo Daalder, former US ambassador to NATO; Jill Dougherty, former CNN foreign affairs correspondent; Bruce Jentleson, a professor at Duke University; and Jane Harmon, CEO of the Wilson Center. The panel began with a summary of the main points of the report, several of which I will address below. After the summary, the experts discussed their thoughts on the report and attempted to explain some of the interesting trends in the data. Following their summations, the panel fielded a few questions from the audience, mostly concerning the trends.
Just before the conference I coincidentally stumbled upon an article by one of my political science heroes, Professor Daniel Drezner of Tufts University, concerning this very report, which he co-authored. The article details ten surprising facts concerning the data gathered and the myth of American isolationism.
Surprisingly, it would seem that from the data, Democrats and Republicans (the general public, not Congress, unfortunately) more or less agree on a wide variety of foreign policy issues. Republicans now view the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq almost as unfavorably as Democrats and Independents. Another shocking finding is Americans’ stance toward Israel. The media says a lot about US support for Israel. However, only about half of the American public would support sending troops to aid Israel if it were invaded. Moreover, the public views Israel as barely favorable on a scale of 1-100, where, unsurprisingly, Iran and North Korea were the least-favored countries.
Some good news came out of the report, with the data showing that now more than ever, Americans view globalization as a force for good. Despite the economic downturn in 2008, a majority of Americans view economic power as very important and continue to support transnational economic treaties.
The report also shed light on alarming aspects of the American view on foreign policy. To my dismay, and the dismay of CGS, a majority of Americans did not seem to care whether or not we took a unilateral or multilateral approach to military operations. The report says that, “There are no discernible differences in views among Americans toward the use of US troops when multilateral action is not specified, as part of a coalition of like-minded allies, or as part of a UN Security Council authorized military mission.”
Despite the surprising statistics, the panel noted many positives to be taken out of the report. The media seemed to portray the public as one with views that change very often, but from the 40 years of research the Chicago Council has done, one can conclude that this is not accurate. Indeed, it seems that the public is fairly static in their foreign policy beliefs, and this fact spans the political spectrum. The most important thing to take away is that the myth of American isolationism is just that: a myth. Americans do not want to disengage from international affairs. Americans want smarter decisions from their elected officials and policy makers.
