The Influence of Public Opinion on Post-Cold War U.S. Military Interventions

Is the American president free to wage a war? What is his leeway with respect to public opinion? The book explores these and other essential questions in understanding post-Cold War and post-9/11 conflicts: interventions characterized by their long duration in distant countries with unclear strategic interests. If public opinion often initially tolerates the President embarking on a military intervention, that support is difficult to maintain in the long term when the troops are on the battlefield and victory appears improbable. In order to maintain public support as long as possible for foreign interventions, the United States often adapts military strategy and tactics to the detriment of the desired objectives. As a result, and contrary to the predominant literature, this qualitative study argues that public opinion has major impact on military interventions.

Based on interviews with political decision-makers involved in post-Cold War case studies, this research reassesses the prevalent conclusion in the academic literature, according to which American public opinion has limited influence on military interventions, by including the level of commitment in the study of the decision-making process.