The College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and the Public Policy Lab (PPL) have announced the formation of a new Foreign Policy Hub within PPL. The initiative will house a new national survey project, Foreign Policy in a Diverse Society (FPDS), which was recently funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York. FPDS will be led by Alexandra Guisinger, Associate Professor of Political Science, Nyron N. Crawford, Assistant Professor of Political Science, and Katja Kleinberg, Associate Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University, SUNY.
Beginning in 2023 and extending for at least two years, FPDS will field quarterly surveys seeking to understand how diverse segments of the population view US foreign economic policy. According to the project team, we have entered a uniquely important time to study attitudes about foreign economic policy. “At this moment, there appears to be sea change in how governments, businesses, and societies relate to one another,” explains Professor Kleinberg. “Market liberalism is falling out of favor in many places as people worry about big challenges like inequality, climate change, and rising global tensions. We have a chance to study these changes and their consequences in real time.”
The FPDS surveys will explicitly probe how diverse communities differ in their beliefs about foreign economic policy. According to Professor Guisinger, “Long-term foreign policy objectives require the support of the American public. Yet, this public is often characterized in narrow terms which minimize the diversity of the American public and obscure the domestic impact of foreign policy.”
In addition to exploring differences in views along dimensions such as gender, race, and ethnicity, FPDS will also explore geographic diversity. As Professor Guisinger adds, “One portion of this project includes geographically targeted surveys which will allow us to collect information about a full spectrum of individuals within specific industrial cities. I'm excited to be able to consider how an individual's community shapes their perceptions about foreign policy.”
In addition to exploring attitudes, the project’s goals include informing better policymaking by disseminating best practices for more inclusive foreign economic policy. "There are new efforts at the federal level to advance race equity in trade and investment policy,” notes Professor Crawford. “Achieving those goals requires a fuller, more diverse account of the opinion-policy linkages of workers from a wider range of communities."
The project leaders will share their finding through academic publications, policy briefs, reports, and webinars. Datasets from the quarterly surveys will also be made available for download on the project’s website.
To learn more about FPDS and the project team, visit the project website. To keep up to date with news, information, and events about FPDS, join the project’s mailing list. Please direct any questions or inquires to [click-for-email].