Elite Opinion Leaders Greatly Vary In Their Foreign Policy Beliefs

Chris J. Dolan, Ph.D., of Lebanon Valley College used a content analysis of national opinion and foreign policy journals between 1992 and 2004 to identify and detail nine foreign policy orientations held by elite opinion leaders.

The nine orientations include Missionaries, Hegemonists, Globalizers, Global Capitalists, Narrow Realists, Progressive Internationalists, Anti-Imperialists, Neighbors, and Disengagers.

The most prevalent orientations in both foreign policy and national opinion journals are hegemonists, globalizers, and progressive internationalists. The most infrequent orientations include missionaries, narrow realists, and disengagers.

Majority beliefs hold that the international scene has become more complex as other actors have challenged U.S. power and that with the collapse of the USSR, the goal of U.S. foreign policy was achieved. Also, it is a widely held belief that global leadership must be exercised through persuasion rather than coercion.

Minority views discriminate between values and interests and reject the notion that peace requires dominance by U.S. power. They also endorse a largely cultural view of foreign policy, history, and policy making, and believe the U.S. should bring its military forces home and withdraw from all international agreements.

“The article suggests that there has been even greater diversity in the foreign policy orientations of elites in the wake of the collapse of Soviet Communism and East-West tensions,” Dolan concludes. “With the observation of nine orientations, elites have developed more politically and ideologically urbane foreign policy beliefs.”