Feb 12, 2020
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the typical American voter doesn’t know or care much about foreign policy. We at the Eurasia Group Foundation questioned this. So we traveled to New Hampshire in advance of last night’s Democratic primary to hear for ourselves what voters there have to say about foreign policy. The degree of knowledge and strength of opinions might surprise you, and help explain the victory of Bernie Sanders.
As Congress debates the limits of the president’s war powers, presidents are, these days, mostly constrained by public opinion and its expression on election day. EGF recently released a study, “Indispensable No More? How The American Public Sees U.S. Foreign Policy,” to better understand the foreign policy preferences of American voters nationwide. By and large, Americans desire a less aggressive foreign policy. In this episode, we see if that holds true in one of America’s first primary states.