Foreign Public Opinion & National Security (original) (raw)

William Mitchell law review, 2010

Abstract

Obama Administration officials, supporters, and critics have acknowledged that the opinion of the world, broadly conceived, matters. Does it? Should it? Is it wimpy and naive, or is it smart, to regard improving foreign public opinion as a key factor in decisionmaking about national security or even a key policy purpose, including where national security intersects with legal policy? What is the record to date? The idea of foreign sentiments mattering to national security is not as radical, nor as simple, as it may sound. Foreign opinion has been an intensive focus of statecraft for millennia. What is different is that in our time revolutionary changes in the nature of power globally have accorded unprecedented importance to foreign public opinion, specifically foreign popular perceptions of U.S. policy. The George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations have both understood this and have launched major efforts intended to improve dramatically foreign public perception of the Unite...

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