On November 13, Yusaku Horiuchi, Professor of Government and Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies at Dartmouth College and a guest professor from Keio University will give a talk entitled “The Impact of Russian Election Meddling on Allies’ Trust in the United States.” Professor Atsushi Tago of the School of Political Science and Economics is hosting the event with the support from the Center for Positive/Empirical Analysis of Political Economy, Top Global University Project at Waseda University.
Abstract
The identity of the United States as a democracy is claimed to be a core part of its so-called “soft power” (Nye 2001). If the United States were not perceived as a democracy, or as a diminished or partial democracy, would this affect its ability to maintain its global alliance network? Would it affect its ability to pursue other important foreign policy goals? In the context of the unusual presidency of Donald Trump, and the now well-documented attempts by Russia to interfere in the 2016 United States election that brought him to power, scholars have focused on Americans’ reactions to foreign election meddling (Tomz & Weeks 2018) and on the impact of Trump on America’s image abroad (Agadjanian & Horiuchi 2018). However, another potentially important aspect of these seemingly new phenomena in international politics is the impact on the U.S. image as a democracy in foreign countries, perhaps most significantly in formal U.S. military allies. U.S. image as a democracy, for example captured in the phrase “leader of the free world,” has been central to its international role since the end of the Second World War. Most of the United States’ key military alliances involve other democracies, including almost all NATO states, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. It is a reasonable assumption that perception of the U.S. as a democracy is both an important justification for the existence and purpose of those alliances, and crucial for their maintenance and survival. But what would happen if citizens of allied countries came to see U.S. democracy as severely flawed, or even came to regard it as nondemocratic? Our team runs a study assessing the impact of information about the attempt (and success) of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election on the views of Australians and Britons about the United States as a military ally.
Event Information
Date & Time: November 13 (Wed), 2019 at 16:30-18:00
Venue: Room 702 on the 7th floor of Building #3, Waseda Campus
Language: English
Open to students, faculty members, and the general public
Participation: No registration required
Speaker: Yusaku Horiuchi, Professor of Government and Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies, Dartmouth College and a guest professor from Keio University
Title: The Impact of Russian Election Meddling on Allies’ Trust in the United States
Contact: Atsushi Tago, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University [email protected]
Co-sponsor: Center for Positive/Empirical Analysis of Political Economy, Waseda University
