American Isolationism Soars To The Highest Level In Decades

Jeremy BenderApr 2, 2014, 04:43 IST

Mary Altaffer/AP

More Americans oppose foreign intervention than at any time since 1964, when the Pew Research Center started tracking this view.

Coinciding with increasing disillusionment of the United States' handling of the invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, 53% of Americans in 2013 said that the U.S. should mind its own business internationally. This was up from just 30% of Americans in 2002.

At the same time, a record number of Americans think the United States is becoming less powerful on the world stage. Climbing from just 20% in 2004, 53% of Americans in 2013 felt that the U.S. was less important and powerful globally it was a decade earlier.

Intriguingly, despite general trends towards military isolationism, 66% of Americans believe that greater U.S. involvement in the global economy is a good thing. The U.S. military often plays a role in securing global trade and protecting the interests of its allies.

America was long known as an isolationist country, dating back to George Washington's warning against entanglement in European affairs. The U.S. only fully abandoned isolationism after World War Two, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union became competing world powers.

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American Isolationism Soars To The Highest Level In Decades