Americans less enchanted as sole superpower

Alex Johnson Reporter • Profile

Americans’ appetite for world leadership has waned significantly since before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with more than two-fifths saying the United States should mind its own business, according to a major new survey released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Council on Foreign Relations, found an isolationist streak that rivals sentiments that emerged in the mid-1970s in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Pew and the Council on Foreign Relations conduct the survey, titled “America and Its Place in the World,” every four years. The last survey was conducted in the summer of 2001, just before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, providing a useful gauge of changes in Americans’ attitudes after the attacks and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“September 11 is losing its power to shape views on foreign policy,” Lee Feinstein, deputy director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in a briefing for reporters. “Activism looks much less appealing.”

Most striking is the sharp rise in Americans’ distaste for the nation’s leading position in world affairs, which the survey indicates reflects a deeper distrust of foreign institutions in general.

Four years ago, 30 percent of Americans agreed that the United States should “mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.” In the new survey, which was conducted from Sept. 5 through Oct. 31, that proportion had grown to 42 percent.

Other findings The survey yielded a variety of other interesting results: — Most of the public believe there hasn’t been another terrorist attack in the United States only because we’ve been lucky. Just a third say it’s because the Bush administration has done a good job protecting the country. — The general public overwhelmingly believes post-9/11 restrictions on visas for foreign students are worthwhile, but majorities in five of the groups of opinion leaders say they go too far. — Americans in general say reducing illegal immigration and fighting international drug trafficking are much more important than opinion leaders do. — The public largely believes U.S. mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the result of misconduct by U.S. soldiers, while solid majorities in five of the eight groups of opinion leaders say it was the result of official policies. America’s Place in the World survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Council on Foreign Relations

That sentiment grew most sharply among Democrats and independents; indeed, it is now shared by a majority of Democrats, at 55 percent, the survey found, up from 40 percent. Among independents, 42 percent shared that view, up from 27 percent.

The Council on Foreign Relations said its analysis found “a striking revival of isolationist sentiment among the general public.” In fact, more than a third of Americans (35 percent) said it would be just fine with them if a second superpower were to emerge to challenge U.S. leadership.

At the same time, fewer than half of Americans — 48 percent — have a positive opinion of the United Nations, down from 77 percent just before 9/11.

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