Stanford CIS

Fewer guns, more talk

By Colin Rule on

From an article by Miriam Pemberton in Foreign Policy in Focus:

"In 2000, the Gallup organization recorded a 65% majority among Republicans, Democrats, and Independents combined who were satisfied with the U.S. position in the world. In May of 2003—when the Iraq mission was being declared accomplished—that figure had risen to 67%. PIPA records that in 2006, that majority is registering dissatisfaction at 68%. In other words, the public's view has been completely reversed in a mere two-and-a-half years—a virtually unprecedented about-face...

Sixty-five percent [of respondents to a survey conducted by the Project on International Public Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland] say the United States has been “too quick to get American military forces involved” in international conflicts, and an even higher percentage wants the United States to put more emphasis on diplomatic and economic methods in combating terrorism...

Supported at lower, but majority levels is increased spending on programs to promote dialogue and intercultural understanding between the United States and the Muslim world... An overwhelming 72% believes that “The United States should do its share in efforts to solve international problems together with other countries... an even larger majority, 79%, approves of the term “good neighbor” itself to characterize the way the United States ought to relate to other countries. In this view, the national interest and the global interest need to be seen as linked. Soundly rejected was the view that the United States needs to concentrate on looking out for its own interests in a dangerous world.

A large 69% majority supports working through multilateral institutions. A slightly smaller but surprisingly robust majority, 61%, believes that “the United States should be more willing to make decisions within the United Nations, even if this means that the United States will sometimes have to go along with a policy that is not its first choice...  By large margins, American voters prefer Congress to support a less militarized and more multilateral foreign policy."

Published in: Blog