News

The
new Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey of American opinions on
foreign policy and America’s place in the world is revealing in a number
of ways. There are several encouraging signs that a majority of
Americans is taking a very sensible view of how activist and
interventionist the U.S. should be in the future. There appears to be
much more acceptance of relative decline in U.S. preeminence and the
rise of more independent powers, and there is clearly a desire for the
U.S. to be engaged in international affairs through greater consultation
and cooperation with other states along with an interest in the more
selective exercise of U.S. power. Some of the findings that I find
particularly noteworthy were the reaction to the rise of increasingly
independent states such as Brazil and Turkey, and the view on what the
U.S. should do in the event of a war between Israel and Iran.

A
large majority (69-28%) said that it was “mostly good” for Turkey and
Brazil to become more independent of U.S. foreign policy, which suggests
that the hysterical anti-Turkish reaction in the last few months has a
very limited base of support. I should note that the questions might
have biased the result towards the “mostly good” side by explaining that
Turkish and Brazilian independence in foreign policy would mean that
they do not rely on the U.S. as much. A... >>>