{"id":9486,"date":"2020-10-23T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/foreign-policy-experts-in-the-u-s-have-much-different-views-about-threats-to-the-country-than-the-general-public\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T23:44:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T04:44:23","slug":"foreign-policy-experts-in-the-u-s-have-much-different-views-about-threats-to-the-country-than-the-general-public","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2020\/10\/23\/foreign-policy-experts-in-the-u-s-have-much-different-views-about-threats-to-the-country-than-the-general-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign policy experts in the U.S. have much different views about threats to the country than the general public"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a>
A traveler guarding against COVID-19 leaves the railway station in Wuhan, China, in March 2020; Hurricane Irma pummels Miami in September. (Feature China\/Barcroft Media, left; Warren Faidley, both Getty Images)\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Foreign policy might not be the primary issue of the 2020 presidential election campaign, but Americans have clear ideas on the various threats facing the United States. Recent Pew Research Center surveys find that Americans are especially concerned<\/a> about the spread of infectious diseases and are more likely than not to blame China<\/a> for its role in the current COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But foreign policy experts have distinctly different perspectives. A September survey of 706 international relations scholars in the U.S. as part of the College of William & Mary\u2019s Teaching, Research and International Policy (TRIP) poll found that their assessment of the current crises facing America and the world are often at odds with those of the U.S. general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"U.S.<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

These experts are less concerned about terrorism, more concerned about climate change and much more positive about China\u2019s response to the coronavirus outbreak, even as they are harshly critical of the U.S. response. However, scholars and the American people do agree that U.S. policy should work to promote human rights in China, even at the expense of economic relations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scholars also tended to express much less concern about various issues than people in 13 other advanced economies surveyed by Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/div>