Are Americans retreating into isolation? Here's what this survey reveals

International News

Public attitudes toward US foreign policy are a mess of ambiguities and seeming contradictions. Americans don’t particularly like Donald Trump’s policies, but they share some of his ambivalence about the country’s vast global role.They are not retreating into isolationism, but neither are they persuaded by the traditional justifications for America’s efforts to shape the world.
These are the principal takeaways from a recent opinion survey conducted by the progressive-leaning Center for American progress. For those who believe that American global engagement has been a good thing for the country and the world, the survey provides reason for optimism and pessimism alike. And it highlights the challenges Trump’s successor will face in rebuilding a foreign policy consensus that has frayed badly.
The good news is that Trump’s statecraft — a zero-sum version of nationalism emphasizing military strength, opposition to immigration and skepticism about America’s global responsibilities — is not very popular. Yes, perhaps one-third of the population can be categorized as “Trump nationalists,” but the president’s foreign policy approval rating is an unimpressive 40 per cent.
Americans are not exactly clamoring for more casual belligerence, economic protectionism, diplomatic self-isolation and simple incompetence.They are, however, receptive to some of Trump’s underlying critiques of America’s global project.

 According to CAP, Americans broadly support the idea of making allies take greater responsibility for their own defense. They place greater emphasis on dealing with direct, tangible threats such as terrorism than on confronting more abstract challenges such as geopolitical revisionism in Europe or the Asia-Pacific. They are wary of prolonged wars in the greater Middle East and show limited enthusiasm for promoting democracy.Americans also worry about trade-offs between domestic and global priorities: They are in the mood to spend money on butter rather than guns...Read More