U.S. Views on Foreign Policy (PDF)

The 2012 Chicago Council Survey of American Public Opinion provides an opportunity to reflect upon American thinking about U.S. engagement in the world after a decade dominated by the nation’s responses to the September 11 terrorist attacks. In 2002, the first survey conducted by the Council after those events, Americans were ready to allocate almost unlimited attention and resources to countering the terrorist threat. Ten years later, as this report shows, Americans still want the United States to play an active part in world affairs. But given the difficulty and cost in lives and treasure of reshaping events in far-off places and the bruising impact of the financial crisis and its aftermath, Americans have become increasingly selective about how and where to engage in the world.