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WATCH: Key findings from Pew survey on Americans’ views of U.S. role in the world

“The public is wary” about global engagement, Carroll Doherty said at a Brookings event today. Doherty, director of political research at the Pew Research Center, presented Pew’s most recent survey, “Public Uncertain, Divided Over America’s Place in the World.” Watch his remarks below (broadcast via Facebook Live), which follow an introduction by Thomas Wright, a Brookings fellow and director of the Project on International Order and Strategy, which sponsored this event.

Some of the key survey findings that Doherty presented included:


Is U.S. involvement in the global economy a bad thing?

Americans way of global involvement


A huge division in views of global threats and how to deal with them.

Widest partisan differences on threats posed by climate change, refugees from the Middle East


Widespread support for an increase in defense spending:

Sharp rise in support for increased defense spending


But a large increase in support for increased defense spending among Republicans especially:

Majority of Republicans say defense spending should be increased

Visit Pew Research Center for complete survey results and analysis.

Also see Bill Galston’s commentary on the survey: “Is Trump out of step with Americans on foreign policy?

The other event participants included Margaret Brennan, foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News; Derek Chollet of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; Laure Mandeville, U.S. bureau chief for “Le Figaro”; and Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Kagan, author of “The World America Made” (Knopf, 2012)