American Public Attitude Towards External World Since The September 11 Attacks

Public opinion demonstrates public concern and consideration of public affairs, the influence of which on public policy and agenda-setting attracts increasingly attention of scholars. The study of public opinion can understand the tendency of public opinion and demands of the public, which will do good to political decisions.The subject of the thesis is the American public attitudes on external affairs since the September 11 attack. Specifically speaking, the subject is the analysis of the public inclination that the United States should take an active part in world affairs or pay more attention to domestic affairs. In other word,this means the public choice between the Isolationism and Internationalism. We will also analyze public attitudes towards military and security. The thesis outlines the stability and variance of American public attitude towards external world since the September 11 attack, according to the collection and analysis of the poll data of the Pew Research Center from 1987 to 2012.Firstly,We will conduct a Macro description of the public attitudes towards external world, analyzing the public attitudes towards such issues as whether the US should focus its attention on domestic affairs or external world, whether the US should be more positive facing the external affairs in the future, whether increasing military power is the best way to ensure peace, in order to grasp the fact and the variance of pubic attitude.Secondly, we will conduct an analysis from the micro-level, observing the influence on public attitude towards external world from the dimension of International political attitude, the government credibility, partisanship and political participation.Finally,we will make an analysis the safety demands of the American public, observing public security concept and its role in the building of national security system.