By Ankit Panda
Pew Research findings show that isolationism reaches new highs as perceptions of US power reach new lows.
A new poll conducted by Pew Research indicates that the American public has an increasingly isolationist outlook with regards to foreign policy. The results are from the “America’s Place in the World” survey of foreign policy attitudes among the American public, which is a joint effort between Pew and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Pew measures isolationist attitudes by asking its poll respondents to determine whether they agree that the United States “should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.” Affirmative responses are nearing the highs set in the 1930s. 52 percent of Americans as per the Pew poll believe the United States ought to “mind its own business internationally.”
The Pew study, conducted around a month ago with a sample size of 2,003 representative U.S. adults, also found that the for the first time ever in about 40 years, more Americans believe that the United States has declined in power from its relative position in the international system 10 years ago. The numbers indicate a clear perception of American decline. Interestingly, a plurality of Americans continue to view China as the top economic power in the world despite the United States’ continued dominance on most non-growth economic indicators. The trend has edged upwards since 2009, which was the first year that Pew found that Americans perceive Chinese economic clout as greater than the United States’. Despite the widespread misperception of the global economic picture, Americans correctly perceive the United States is the world’s leading military power.
Read the full story at The Diplomat