Public Opinion Context: Trump’s Trip to Middle East and Europe

Donald Trump’s first overseas trip as president will take him to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican, then to Brussels for a major NATO meeting and back to Italy for a G7 summit. The world is watching with particular interest to see how his administration, subject to serial and serious […] Read more »

Americans Overwhelmingly Support Cooperative International Engagement But Want US to Play a Less Dominant Role

A new study from the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation calls into question the widespread assumption that the American public wants to disengage from world affairs. Rather, the PPC study reveals that large majorities support cooperative forms of international engagement—including full participation in NATO and giving foreign aid—but […] Read more »

Putin and the Populists

Donald Trump is practically alone in mainstream American politics in his consistent praise of Vladimir Putin and insistence that the United States would benefit from warmer relations with Russia. But that inclination to view Putin more as ally than adversary places Trump squarely in line with the racially infused, conservative-populist […] Read more »

Republicans get behind Trump, but not all of his policies

As the Republican National Convention gets under way in Cleveland, the party’s top goal will be to unite Republicans and expand Donald Trump’s appeal to the general electorate. A new survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, conducted June 10-27, 2016, found that a large majority of Republicans are […] Read more »

Despite high public support for defense spending in Europe, discord over burden sharing emerges

The NATO summit in Warsaw that wrapped up on July 9 demonstrated once again that the defense spending effort of European allies remains a contentious issue in the alliance. On the eve of the summit, news reports indicated that American officials had prepared a briefing designed in part to “name […] Read more »