Citation

Levin DH, Trager RF. J. Glob. Secur. Stud. 2019; 4(3): 345-357.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, International Studies Association, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/jogss/ogz021

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

How do the limitations of the American perspective in international relations (IR) affect the accuracy of theorizing? We show that assumptions about the relationship between domestic and international politics that underlie significant segments of American IR scholarship are unwarranted. Publics around the world do not respond to United Nations' and other intergovernmental organizations' criticism of their governments in the same way that Americans do. Publics are not universally poorly informed of their country's foreign policies, and they are not equally skeptical of the value of using force for resolving disputes with other states. We demonstrate the limitations of US-based scholarship using new and unique survey data from the United States and other countries. We then address how these US-centric assumptions skew certain IR literatures and limit important research agendas pursued by American scholars.


international relations theory, signaling, international organizations, US-centric blind spots, the democratic peace

Language: en