It has become a cliche to describe events of the past four years as having created a historical turning point of virtually unparalleled proportions. The liberation of Eastern European nations by its own citizens, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Persian Gulf War, and the emerging economic union of the European Community have transformed the Cold War international system. But it is much less clear how the United States will react to the challenges, constraints, and opportunities of the new era; a retreat to neo-isolationism or a leadership role in creating and sustaining institutions and regimes for coping with a wide array of international issues are only two of the many possibilities. Whatever choices the United States makes will have a significant impact on the post-Cold War world order. These choices will be influenced by many factors, including the political beliefs of American opinion leaders. This project seeks to gain reliable and systematic evidence about the domestic and foreign policy beliefs of American opinion leaders representing a wide range of institutions, including corporations, labor unions, government, the media, the military, churches, universities, etc. To do so the project will conduct a mail survey of approximately 4,000 opinion leaders whose names have been drawn from Who's Who In America, Who's Who of American Women, and similar directories. The survey, to be conducted in the spring of 1992, will be the fifth in a series of studies of American opinion leaders undertaken by the investigators. Each of the previous surveys, undertaken in 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988, yielded responses from over 2,000 opinion leaders. This unique body of data provides a strong baseline from which to measure the impact of the dramatic events since 1988 on the political attitudes and beliefs of Americans who are well positioned to play an influential role in the public dialogue about the appropriate international role for the United States in the 1990s and beyond. The results of the 1992 survey will be made avaliable to the entire social science community and will be an invaluable source for interested students of American foreign policy.
