STRATEGIC

4 Strategic Choices for a Turbulent World: In Pursuit of Security and Opportunity
Figure 1.1
Fluctuating Support for U.S. International Engagement
The U.S. should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get
along the best they can on their own.
80
Percentage of responses
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
End of
Korean War
Disagree
Agree
End of
Vietnam War
9/11
attacks
Iraq troop
surge
0
1947 1953 1975 2001 2007 2016
SOURCES: Dina Smeltz, Foreign Policy in the New Millennium: Results of the 2012
Chicago Council Survey of American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy, Chicago,
Ill.: Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2012; Pew Research Center, 2016b.
RAND RR1631-1.1
into renewed public willingness to support a more activist U.S. foreign
policy. 9
Polling data suggest that the public mood reflects more than a
lack of confidence in the government’s ability to eliminate terrorism
and stabilize the Middle East; 10 it also reflects a loss of political consensus
about America’s role in the world and, more generally, a high level
9 In a reversal of long-time trends, the Chicago Council Survey found that Democrats are
now more likely than Republicans to support an active U.S. role in world affairs. In 1974, for
example, 72 percent of Republicans agreed the United States should “take an active part in
world affairs,” in 2006, 77 percent did. By 2016, that number had fallen to 64 percent. Democratic
support for an active role was 68 percent in 1974, 65 percent in 2006, and 70 percent in
2016. Dina Smeltz et al., “America in the Age of Uncertainty,” Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Council
on Global Affairs, 2016, based on a survey of 2,061 adults from June 10 to June 27, 2016.
10 “U.S. Position in the World,” 2016. Gallup has documented high levels of distrust in the
government and rising dissatisfaction with the U.S. role in the world. The Pew Research
Center documented similar results in a late 2015 poll that found that only 19 percent of
Americans say they can trust the government in Washington most of the time—down from