Foreign policy involves determining how the United States and its allies should interact with the rest of the world, including engaging with warring nations and groups to reach peaceful solutions. It includes establishing diplomatic relations, promoting trade and economic cooperation, fighting terrorism, and addressing security issues like military alliances, arms control, and peacekeeping operations.

With its mighty military and largest economy, the United States has outsized influence in global affairs, which makes its decisions especially important. In this context, policy makers must strike a delicate balance between competing visions of how best to use America’s unique power to advance American values and interests, while maintaining a sustainable international order that benefits the rest of the world.

For many Americans, the answer lies somewhere in the middle of two broad ideological camps. Americanists emphasize the need to wield America’s “unmatched power” to promote its interests abroad, even in the face of asymmetric threats from Russia and China. Meanwhile, Globalists argue that a more effective way to leverage America’s power will require international cooperation, and they warn against clinging to the idea that America can go it alone.

In this regard, the views of Democrats and Republicans appear to be shifting. Since 2016, a larger percentage of Democratic and independent voters say the United States should take the interests of its allies into account when making foreign policy. In contrast, a smaller share of Republicans and Republican leaners now say that is the case (although that share hasn’t changed much among moderate and conservative Republicans). Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who say limiting repression in other countries is a top priority has risen dramatically under Trump, while fewer Americans today name the fight against climate change as a key foreign policy goal.