The Structure, causes, and consequences of foreign policy attitudes: A cross-national analysis of representative democracies

This research project seeks to better understand the nature and consequences of the foreign policy attitudes of individuals from six advanced democracies (United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, France, Germany and the US). To test hypotheses that are of interest to academics and practitioners alike this research programme proposes to develop a common survey instrument that probes agreement and disagreement with a series of specific foreign policy issues. British and American respondents will be given multiple surveys over the course of a three year period to test the over-time stability of foreign policy attitudes.
Key main questions the applicant will address through techniques appropriate for analysing survey data are whether:

attitudes towards specific foreign policy attitudes have a meaningful structure;
the structure, if present, is similar across nations;
agree-disagree responses to survey questions tapping attitudes towards specific foreign policies are stable in the face of actual political events or experimental manipulations that highlight the policy's proposed costs, objectives, and chances of success;
sructured foreign policy attitudes are related to support for political parties, their leaders, and voter choice;
national political institutions foster or blunt the ability of foreign policy attitudes to influence voter choice.