Fully 63% of Americans approve of the Obama administration’s decision last month to re-establish diplomatic ties with Cuba after more than 50 years. And there is equally broad support for going further and ending the decades-long U.S. trade embargo against Cuba (66% favor this). Yet there is broad public skepticism […] Read more »
Fox News Poll: Voters expect GOP Congress to win more often than Obama
As the 114th Congress gets underway, the vast majority of voters continue to give legislators the thumbs down, and many people are unfamiliar with the leaders on Capitol Hill. Still, a majority thinks the new GOP-led Congress will trump the president in the next two years. Only a third of […] Read more »
American Public Attitudes Toward ISIS and Syria
Although the fight against the Islamic State, or ISIS, found broad support in Congress and amongst a growing international coalition, questions remain about America’s commitment to a mission to “degrade and ultimately destroy” this terrorist organization, and about the efficacy of the current military strategy in stopping ISIS from seizing […] Read more »
Ignorance, Partisanship Drive False Beliefs about Obama, Iraq
False beliefs about the invasion of Iraq and President Obama’s citizenship still flourish among Americans, according to the most recent national survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind. More than four-in-ten Americans say it is likely that U.S. forces found active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq after the 2003 […] Read more »
How to make surveys in war zones better, and why this is important
Surveys are now a common, though largely unacknowledged, counterinsurgency tool of the contemporary battlefield. … Certain problems associated with administering surveys in war zones are well known and largely unavoidable. Analysts at the RAND Corporation, for instance, have observed that conflict can prevent enumerators from accessing the most dangerous – […] Read more »
At the End of Afghanistan War, Most Doubt its Value
Fewer than four in 10 Americans say the war in Afghanistan was worth fighting – up from its low but still a broadly negative judgment on the United States’ longest conflict. Asked to consider its costs vs. benefits, 38 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the war in […] Read more »