Living with Hegemony: high and low crisis periods and perceptions of the U.S. in global public opinion

This paper examines the relevance of three models developed in our previous work with Takashi Inoguchi for explaining patterns of global opinion towards U.S. foreign policy. Here we look at situations of varying levels of international crisis involving the U.S. We use survey data including a number of questions which have been asked repeatedly in many countries by several survey organizations, Globescan/PIPA, Gallup International, and PEW, since 2001. The goals are to (1) establish whether consistent patterns exist in global perceptions of the U.S., and (2) explore the reasons for consistencies with and deviations from these patterns during ‘normal’ and crisis periods. In effect, we ask what are the normal bounds within which U.S. foreign policy operates relative to global opinion, and how those bounds might expand or contract. Our conclusions include new support for the negative impact of U.S. unilateralism on perceptions of U.S. foreign policy.