Is American Nationalism Changing? Implications for Foreign Policy

This article analyzes the degree of popular consensus about a nation's identity, core values, and mission as a source of social integration and a broad constraint on foreign policy-making. It identifies cosmopolitan liberalism, nativism, and multiculturalism as three rival ideologies of American nationalism, comparing their main principles and competing approaches toward integrating a diverse society. The paper presents a synthesis of recent survey evidence to assess the relative degree of support for these competing conceptions of American identity. The relationship of these conceptions to the foreign policy orientations delineated in the Wittkopf-Holsti-Rosenau typology is examined to speculate about how shifts in American nationalism may shape the general direction of foreign policy in the future.