Public Opinion
Is America’s Faith in Joe Biden Slipping?
Here’s What You Need to Remember: A Pew Research poll indicated that, while most Americans supported Biden and his agenda, they were skeptical that the president would be able to...
Torn Between Russia and the West, Where do Young Belarusians Stand?
Since Belarus’s disputed presidential elections on August 9, hundreds of thousands of Belarusians have taken to the streets. Their protests have been met with extreme police brutality. According to the...
The Heavy Historical Baggage of U.S. Policy Toward the Middle East
There is much to be said for what is commonly called a “zero-based review”—a fresh look at a problem or project unencumbered by existing assumptions and practices. Just about any...
The American People Aren’t Ready for China
How should the United States respond to the rise of China? Scholars and practitioners of foreign policy are divided on this question. The battle lines are familiar. Optimists about the...
The Sources of Public Disengagement From International Engagement
Kurt Campbell, who was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs until last year, had an interesting op ed the other day that relates the growing inequality...
Intervention Forever
This week the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released the results of their biannual survey of American positions (and dispositions) with regard to the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The...
Putin’s Public Opinion Challenge
Russian public opinion is far more likely in the near term to shape the behavior of the Kremlin than the new, tough sanctions against Russia—but not in ways that most...
Hobby Lobby and How Left and Right Flipped on Religious Freedom
Was contraception illegal in 2010? Were people unable to purchase birth-control pills without the consent of their employers? The answer to these questions is no, despite the repeated insistences that...
Afghanistan Is No Vietnam
Several weeks ago, reputable news organizations like Politico and CNN reported the results of a survey of Americans in which support for the Afghanistan war, now in its thirteenth year,...
Ukraine and the Zero-Sum Impulse
It is perhaps unsurprising, but nevertheless unhelpful, for so much of the discussion in the United States about policy toward Ukraine to be fueled by Cold War-type juices that the...
Speculative Mischief and Flight 370
The longer the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continues, the more opportunity there will be for stories about what happened to the plane to take root and to endure...
Crimea, Credibility, and Intervention
The Crimean crisis has energized those who wallow in a conventional wisdom that, as Fareed Zakaria noted last week, had already become a familiar theme on the opinion pages. This...