Foreign Policy Orientations and U.S. Counterterrorism Support

Abstract

Since terrorism has an undeniable psychological component; how citizens think about counterterrorism offers important implications for determining successful state responses. This research note examines empirical linkages between foreign policy preferences and support for eight counterterrorism measures, especially military-focused approaches associated with the “war model” of counterterrorism. Findings derived from the Chicago Council Survey of American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy indicate that traditional foreign policy orientations, especially internationalist and militarist postures, condition respondent counterterrorism preferences in important ways beyond ideology and partisan identification. Moreover, threat perceptions consistently predict respondent support for both violent and restrictive counterterrorism measures.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2021.2015820 .

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Bart Schuurman, “Public Support and (Counter) Terrorism,” in Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, ed. Andrew Silke (New York: Routledge, 2019), 416–24, 422.

2 John Mueller and Mark Stewart, “Public Opinion and Counterterrorism Policy” (Washington, DC: CATO Institute, 2018).

3 Michael Stohl, “Counterterrorism and Repression,” in The Roots of Terrorism, ed. Louise Richardson (New York: Routledge, 2006), 57–69.

4 Daniel Byman, “Counterterrorism Strategies,” in The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism, ed. Erica Chenoweth, Richard English, Andreas Gofas, and Stathis Kalyvas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 623–39, 623.

5 Michael Boyle, “The Military Approach to Counterterrorism,” in Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, ed. Andrew Silke (New York: Routledge, 2019), 384–94.

6 Ronald Crelinsten, “Conceptualizing Counterterrorism,” in Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, ed. Andrew Silke (New York: Routledge, 2019), 363–74.

7 Jacopo Bellasio, Joanna Hofman, Antonia Ward, Fook Nederveen, Anna Knack, Arya Sofia Meranto, and Stijn Hoorens, “Counterterrorism Evaluation: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead” (RR-2628-WODC. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018); Gregory Miller, “Confronting Terrorisms: Group Motivation and Successful State Policies,” Terrorism and Political Violence 19, no. 3 (2007): 331–50, 344.

8 Ekaterina Stepanova, “Anti-Terrorism and Peace-Building During and After Conflict,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). June. Stockholm (2003).

9 Crelinsten, “Conceptualizing Counterterrorism,” 365.

10 Boyle, “The Military Approach to Counterterrorism.”

11 Seth Jones and Martin Libicki, How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering Al Qa’ida (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2008).

12 Boyle, “The Military Approach to Counterterrorism,” 386.

13 Joshua Kertzer and Kathleen McGraw, “Folk Realism: Testing the Microfoundations of Realism in Ordinary Citizens,” International Studies Quarterly 56 (2012): 245–58.

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15 Miller, “Confronting Terrorisms.”

16 Ethan Bueno De Mesquita, "Conciliation, Counterterrorism, and Patterns of Terrorist Violence," International Organization 59, no. 1 (2005): 145–76; Brandon Boylan, “Sponsoring Violence: A Typology of Constituent Support for Terrorist Organizations,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 38, no. 8 (2015): 652–70; Stephen Ceccoli and John Bing, “Explaining Divergent Attitudes toward Lethal Drone Strikes,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 38, no. 2 (2015): 146–66. See also Stephen Ceccoli and John Bing, “Taking the Lead? Transatlantic Attitudes towards Lethal Drone Strikes,” Journal of Transatlantic Studies 16, no. 3 (2018): 247–71.

17 Duyvesteyn and Schuurman, “Public Support and (Counter) Terrorism.”

18 Eugene R. Wittkopf, Faces of Internationalism: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy (Duke University Press, 1990); Ole Holsti, Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy (University of Michigan Press, 2004); Jon Hurwitz and Mark Peffley, “How Are Foreign Policy Attitudes Structured? A Hierarchical Model,” American Political Science Review 81, no. 4 (1987): 1099–120; Richard Herrmann, Philip Tetlock, and Penny Visser, “Mass Public Decisions on Go to War: A Cognitive-Interactionist Framework,” American Political Science Review 93, no. 3 (1999): 553–73.

19 Miroslav Nincic and Jennifer M. Ramos, “Ideological Structure and Foreign Policy Preferences,” Journal of Political Ideologies 15, no. 2 (2010): 119–41; Brian C. Rathbun et al., “Taking Foreign Policy Personally: Personal Values and Foreign Policy Attitudes,” International Studies Quarterly 60, no. 1 (2016): 124–37.

20 Wittkopf, Faces of Internationalism.

21 Nincic and Ramos, "Ideological Structure and Foreign Policy Preferences," 138.

22 Brigitte Nacos, Mass-Mediated Terrorism: Mainstream and Digital Media in Terrorism and Counterterrorism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

23 Leonie Huddy, Stanley Feldman, Charles Taber, and Gallya Lahav, “The Politics of Threat: Cognitive and Affective Reactions to 9/11,” American Journal of Political Science 49, no. 3 (2005): 610–25; Cindy Kam and Donald Kinder, “Terror and Ethnocentrism: Foundations of American Support for the War on Terrorism,” The Journal of Politics 69, no. 2 (2007): 320–38.

24 William Chittick, Keith Billingsley, and Rick Travis, “A Three-Dimensional Model of American Foreign Policy Beliefs,” International Studies Quarterly 39, no. 3 (1995): 313–31.

25 Holsti, Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy.

26 Hurwitz and Peffley, “How Are Foreign Policy Attitudes Structured?,” 1107.

27 Brian C. Rathbun, “Hierarchy and Community at Home and Abroad: Evidence of a Common Structure of Domestic and Foreign Policy Beliefs in American Elites,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 51, no. 3 (2007): 379–407, 388.

28 Bruce Jentleson and Rebecca L. Britton, “Still Pretty Prudent: Post-Cold War American Public Opinion on the Use of Military Force,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 42, no. 4 (1998): 395–417; Herrmann, Tetlock, and Visser, “Mass Public Decisions on Go to War.”

29 Bruce W. Jentleson, “The Pretty Prudent Public: Post Post-Vietnam American Opinion on the Use of Military Force,” International Studies Quarterly 36, no. 1 (1992): 49–74; John Mueller, War, Presidents, and Public Opinion (New York: Wiley, 1973); Christopher Gelpi, Peter D. Feaver, and Jason Reifler, “Success Matters: Casualty Sensitivity and the War in Iraq,” International Security 30, no. 3 (2005): 7–46. Domestic political factors such as partisan political conflict, elite consensus, and the nature of media coverage also demonstrate the explanatory power of situational factors. See Matthew Baum and Tim Groeling, War Stories: The Causes and Consequences of Public Views of War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010); John Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); Bridgitte L. Nacos, Mass-Mediated Terrorism: The Central Role of the Media in Terrorism and Counterterrorism (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).

30 Jeff Greenberg and Jamie Arndt, “Terror Management Theory,” in Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology. (2011), 398–415, 398.

31 George Marcus and Michael B. MacKuen, “Anxiety, Enthusiasm, and the Vote: The Emotional Underpinnings of Learning and Involvement During Presidential Campaigns,” American Political Science Review 87, no. 3 (1993): 672–85, 681.

32 Richard Lau and David Redlawsk, “Advantages and Disadvantages of Cognitive Heuristics in Political Decision Making,” American Journal of Political Science 45, no. 4 (2001): 951–71, 968.

33 Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza, Whose Rights? Counterterrorism and the Dark Side of American Public Opinion (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2013).

34 Leonie Huddy, Stanley Feldman, and Christopher Weber, “The Political Consequences of Perceived Threat and Felt Insecurity,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 614, no. 1 (2007): 131–53, 132.

35 Craig Kafura, Dina Smeltz, Karl Friedhoff, Ivo Daalder, Gregory Holyk, and Joshua Busby, “Chicago Council Survey of American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy” (Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016); The survey utilizes a national random digit dialing (RDD) sampling methodology on a probability-based web panel of the U.S. adult population aged 18 years and over. The sample, which includes up to 2,000 valid responses (varying by dependent variable question type), is 52.2% female, 75.6% white or Caucasian, and has an average respondent age of 51.1 years.

36 Scott Long and Freese Jeremy. Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata, 3rd ed. (College Station: Stata Press, 2014).

37 Full model results are available in the supplementary tables.

38 Huff and Kertzer, “How the Public Defines Terrorism,” 55, italics in original.

39 Toby Bolsen, James N. Druckman, and Fay Lomax Cook, “The Influence of Partisan Motivated Reasoning on Public Opinion,” Political Behavior 36, no. 2 (2014): 235–62.

40 Charles Taber and Milton Lodge, “Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs,” American Journal of Political Science 50, no. 3 (2006): 755–69, 755.

41 Jon Finer and Robert Malley, 2017. “How Our Strategy Against Terrorism Gave Us Trump,” New York Times, March 4, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/opinion/sunday/how-our-strategy-against-terrorism-gave-us-trump.html?auth=login-email&login=email (accessed November, 2021).

42 Crelinsten, “Conceptualizing Counterterrorism.”

43 Mueller and Stewart, “Public Opinion and Counterterrorism Policy,” 1.

44 Adam Lankford, “Public Opinions of Suicide Bombers’ Mental Health,” Comprehensive Psychology 3 (2014): 1–4.

45 Huddyet al., “The Politics of Threat: Cognitive and Affective Reactions to 9/11”; Kam and Kinder, “Terror and Ethnocentrism."

46 Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat (New York: Random House, 2006), 234, italics in original.

47 Cynthia Lum, Leslie Kennedy, and Alison Sherley, “Are Counter-Terrorism Strategies Effective? The Results of the Campbell Systematic Review on Counter-Terrorism Evaluation Research,” Journal of Experimental Criminology 2, no. 4 (2006): 489–516, 489.