The next three chapters of the text readjust our analytic lenses by evaluating the forces that seek to influence U.S. foreign policy from the “outside-in,” including public opinion, the news media, and interest groups. This chapter focuses particularly on public opinion, which is a societal factor that serves as both a powerful ingredient and a constraint in shaping U.S. foreign policy. Historically, Americans were considered uninformed about the particulars of international affairs and foreign policy, although they form opinions readily regarding global situations when presented with the bare facts. Much of a policy maker’s time is spent manipulating and actively gauging public opinion, beginning with the Kennedy administration and continuing today. Presidents are especially incentivized to “create” public opinion on issues of foreign policy because of their expansive powers and the public’s primary focus on domestic issues. This has created a unique cycle of public opinion formation and analysis.

Exploring public opinion regarding U.S. foreign policy is challenging because it varies depending on issue, time period, and the type of person voicing the opinion. The public can be divided into three main groups based on its attention to and impact on foreign policy: the mass public, attentive public, and foreign policy elite. The imbalance of the groups’ levels of influence and involvement is at the heart of the paradox of the inverse relationship between public opinion and U.S. foreign policy. Further compounding this paradox is the continuous debate over whether government officials should represent the foreign policy wishes of the public or use their experience and expertise to make foreign policy decisions.

The traditional view of American public opinion argues that public opinion is volatile, incoherent, and irrelevant to the foreign policy process. Challenges to this consensus emphasize the division between viewpoints of the mass public and elites. This chapter also investigates the deeper held values and beliefs, as opposed to factual knowledge, that make up public opinion regarding foreign policy and international politics. This chapter then moves from theoretic to practical implications of public opinion. Included are discussions of a rally effect on presidential approval following the September 11 terrorist attacks that gave way to declining public support for intervention in Iraq along with international frustration and disillusionment with the U.S. conduct of military operations in the Middle East. The president bore the brunt of much of this criticism and anti-American backlash.

With Barack Obama’s election, the United States sought to restore its tarnished international credibility. The new administration specifically aligned itself with four key trends in prevailing public sentiment including espousing a greater regard for diplomacy, multilateral cooperation, international law, and international institutions than did its predecessor. However, the Obama administration has faced a public suffering from foreign policy fatigue, thus complicating the president’s decision-making process on issues such as the 2011 Arab Spring, Russia, China, and the Islamic State. Still, the public has been frustrated by the president’s actions, feeling that the United States has not been aggressive enough in responding to its biggest foreign policy challenges.

This chapter concludes by considering the factors that shape citizens’ political viewpoints, particularly focusing in on group identities. These include the physical, social, and political traits that affect the basic attitudes of the citizenry. Regardless of the differences that these factors produce, one cross-cutting area of agreement is the importance of reaching out to the world through multilateral institutions and diplomacy while continuing to keep America’s military forces strong. Most Americans also express a desire for greater government attention to domestic issues—primarily unemployment and other economic problems—that may revive the “guns-or-butter debates” that ignite repeatedly during hard times. Overall, this chapter reveals that public opinion is a potent force in U.S. foreign policy decision making.