American foreign policy and global public opinion: who supported the war in Afghanistan?

Benjamin E. Goldsmith, Yusaku Horiuchi, Takashi Inoguchi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

What affects global public opinion about U.S. foreign policy? The authors examine this question using a cross-national survey conducted during and immediately after the 2001 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. They propose three models of global public opinion— interests, socialization, and influence—and discuss their empirical validity. Socialization variables (e.g., Muslim population and past terrorist incidents) tend to exhibit significant effects. A variable measuring shared security interests, North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership, has significant effects in favor of U.S. policy, but other mutual defense pacts with the U.S. have a backlash effect. Shared economic interests, represented by levels of trade, also have a positive influence. Variables measuring conflicting security interests as well as those measuring U.S. efforts to influence foreign public opinion have insignificant or weak effects.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)408-429
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of Conflict Resolution
Volume49
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • foreign policy
  • global public opinion
  • terrorism
  • Afghanistan
  • United States

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'American foreign policy and global public opinion: who supported the war in Afghanistan?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this