October 11, 2022
Most of the public believes the U.S. relationship with traditionally hostile nations such as Russia and North Korea will worsen over the next year, while the U.S. standing in the world and its relationship with traditional allies such as the United Kingdom and the European Union will improve or remain the same.
These are among the findings from a new Pearson Institute/AP-NORC Poll being released in conjunction with the 2022 Pearson Global Forum, an event that will bring together researchers and policymakers to develop strategies to prevent and resolve international conflicts.
These results, coming two years into the Biden administration, stand in stark contrast to those from an AP-NORC survey conducted two years into the Trump administration. That 2018 survey found about half of the public expected our relationship with allies to worsen and just a quarter expected those with traditionally hostile nations to worsen. This shift in opinion is tied to partisanship – Democrats, who four years ago expected worsening conditions, now see stability in the near future, while Republicans, who foresaw improvements in 2018, now expect the current administration to stumble.
Majorities of adults across party lines are largely supportive of several foreign policy goals, including the protection of women and minority groups, the protection of the environment internationally, the promotion of economic growth worldwide, and especially the maintenance of a strong national defense.
Three-quarters of people say that the U.S. government has a similar degree of responsibility as the United Nations to protect the rights of women and minority groups around the world. But even as most see the United States as responsible for human rights abroad, only about 1 in 5 say the United States stands above all other countries in the world when it comes to protecting the rights of women, racial and ethnic minorities, religious minorities, or LGBTQ people.
Most adults believe nations which regularly fail to protect the rights of women and minority groups should face international repercussions, ranging from exclusion from international sporting events like the Olympics to an end of financial support from the United States.
The nationwide poll was conducted by the Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from September 9 to 12, 2022, using AmeriSpeak®, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,003 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.0 percentage points.
Suggested Citation: The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (October, 2022). “Public outlook on U.S. foreign policy differs two years into the Biden administration compared with two years into the Trump administration” [https://apnorc.org/projects/public-outlook-on-u-s-foreign-policy-differs-two-years-into-the-biden-administration-compared-with-two-years-into-the-trump-administration]
