Public Opinion and Foreign Policy ∗ John Peterson 1

9 L a í t { 5 Ç 9 t h C t W t 1 US Democrats = the True Europeans? Public Opinion and Foreign Policy ∗ John Peterson 1 This paper, based on a ceremonial lecture, develops three main arguments. First, we know far more today about public opinion globally than we have ever known before. Second, foreign policy is becoming a less cloistered, elite- dominated arena of public policy. Third, all of this has implications for transatlantic relations. On most questions of values – including those which underpin US foreign policy – Americans are more alike than different from one another, and both exceptional and distinct from Europeans. On questions of policy, the real divide is often not between Europe and America, but between American Republicans and everybody else. One consequence of the polarisation of American society is that American Democrats share many views on policy that are ‘European’ in nature. Over the years, all of us who have studied European integration have learned a lot from Joseph Weiler of New York University. Over those same years, he has developed and kept close ties to the University of Edinburgh, mostly via the good offices of our highly-prized colleague Prof Drew Scott of the Europa Institute. A few years ago, I saw Weiler give a ceremonial lecture in Belfast. On that occasion, I felt that I learned a lot about what is appropriate at this sort of occasion. By way of introducing him, the person chairing in Belfast elected to read out a very long list of all of the academic institutions where Joseph had ever been affiliated. It went on for very long time. Finally, Joseph interrupted and said: ‘Mr Chairman – could I just remind you: my Mother is not here’. But actually, my Mother is here, so I thought I might sit back down at this point and invite our Chairman back to podium to continue his eulogy. 2 Instead – as a first point – I feel truly privileged to work alongside an immensely talented group of colleagues at Edinburgh. They are – on balance and as a group – less irritable, petulant, and self-centred than colleagues I’ve had in the past. On a lot of days, that is more important than ‘talent’. I tend to think that we succeed at the University only when we all try to be a better colleague tomorrow than we have managed to be today. Even then, we often don’t succeed. But the best thing about working here is the quality of people with whom I work. And I hoped it might be ok if I heaped a little extra admiration on two of them. The first is Professor Charlie Jeffery, with whom I found myself competing two years ago for this job – to my great horror – but alongside whom I have ended up working closely – to my enormous ∗ Professor of International Politics, University of Edinburgh, [email protected]. 1 This paper is a revised version of an inaugural lecture given on 10 October 2006. An audio podcast of the lecture (with visuals) is available from : http://www.podcasts.ed.ac.uk/politics/2006/peterson_inaugural/peterson_inaug_html.mov . The lecture concluded with a fulsome tribute to my sons, Miles and Calum, which has been left out of this text version. All web-sites listed in this paper were accessed in September and/or early October 2006 when the lecture was being prepared, and then revisited in December 2007 when the text version was prepared. Inevitably, some of site addresses may have changed in the interim; the latest addresses found have been listed here. 2 The inaugural lecture mentioned in footnote 1 was chaired by Professor Timothy O’Shea, the Principal of the University of Edinburgh. 2 profit. Careful observers would note that the University actually hired Charlie first , ahead of me. But I’ve learned to let that go when, say, I use the facilities at Charlie’s house and see the poster hanging in his bathroom that asks: ‘What does Charlie have that I don’t have?’ I let it go… The other colleague I would mention is Dr Elizabeth Bomberg. This University is not the first place where she and I have been colleagues. So I am used to being careful about what I say to her and about her around the office. But since this is a special occasion, I hope no one will mind if I just point out that I am not sure I have ever seen Elizabeth look quite as radiant as she does this evening in the 473 years that she and I have been together. And just before moving onto my chosen topic, I would like to pay tribute to the outstanding postgraduate students in Politics, with whom it is a joy to work nearly all of the time. In particular, Andrea Birdsall, Claire Duncanson, and Dr Tom Moore – each in their own way – are credits to this University. I have been honoured to work with them. Returning to Joseph Weiler: that night in Belfast, he said he thought most people turn up to ceremonial lectures secretly hoping for two things. First, that the speaker will not go on too long. Second, that the lecture will not be too (for lack of a better term) academic . When Henry Kissinger – then a Harvard Professor – visited Harry Truman after Truman had retired to Independence, Missouri, and tried to engage him in a discussion of international politics, Truman listened for a few minutes and then said: ‘don’t give me all this damned fancy Professor talk’. 3 So I would like to make this analysis brisk and clear, while still living up to the standards of a University that was the birthplace of the Scottish enlightenment and left a very deep footprint in my own country. Most people know that Edinburgh was an institutional home to (say) David Hume and Sir Walter Scott. Perhaps fewer know of John Witherspoon. He left Edinburgh to become President of Princeton University where he taught James Madison.4 Madison was educated at every stage by Presbyterian Scots, who instilled in him a deep suspicion of the motives of sinful men, and the need to separate the powers of the American government to keep such evil at bay. In addition to Madison, John Witherspoon personally tutored one American vice-President, 10 cabinet officers, 60 member of Congress, 12 state governors, 56 state legislators, and 30 judges (including three justices of the Supreme Court). At least one-third of the signatories of the US Declaration of Independence was born in Scotland or had Scottish parents and something like five (Witherspoon amongst them) were graduates of or tutors at the University of Edinburgh. Other graduates include, of course, Charles Darwin, 5 3 See Henry Kissinger (1994) Diplomacy , New York and London: Touchstone, p.425. 4 Garrett Ward Sheldon (2001) The Political Philsophy of James Madison , London and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. I am grateful to Professor Sir David Edward KCMG, QC, FRSE who first enlightened me about John Witherspoon and pointed me towards this book. 5 In fact, Darwin never graduated from the University. He was a medical student from 1825-7 at Edinburgh, but was sickened by the sight and smell of cadavers on whom work was done that he and his classmates were expected to 3 Alexander Graham Bell, and Gordon Brown. Our main student newspaper was founded by Robert Louis Stephenson. Now, you might be thinking: ‘this American has a serious case of Walter Mitty syndrome’. But I find it impossible not to feel the weight of history at this University. 6 More generally, Elizabeth and I feel at home here. That is the case mostly, I think, because we’ve made such good friends and manufactured two eager young Scots. But it is also (for my own part) possibly because my great- grandfather came from Ayrshire, and incidentally was called John. He married an American whose grandfather (also called John) was married in Edinburgh in 1847 before coming to America in 1859. Maybe this explains – in some primordial way – why (for example) I feel a sense of joy when I hear that Kirsty Young is taking over Desert Island Discs . Here I might mention Daniel Mendelsohn’s recent book, The Lost .7 It is the story of his search for clues about the disappearance of six of his relatives in the Holocaust. A reviewer of this book wrote something that stayed with me: ‘It is sobering to realise that one little story can keep someone living in a descendant’s memory. Once even that is forgotten, the person vanishes as if they never existed’.8 I do not really know many little stories about my great-great-great grandfather John Cochrane. But in any case I come from him. And I think that talking about him tonight, just short of 159 years since the day he got married at St Cuthbert’s church in Edinburgh (which is just short of a mile from where we gather) is remarkable. Shifting from the ceremonial to the substantive; I would like to make three arguments. First, we know far more today about public opinion globally than we have ever known before. Second, foreign policy is becoming a less cloistered, elite-dominated arena of public policy. Third, all of this has implications for transatlantic relations, a subject on which, these days, it sometimes feels as if one must read 50 lies for every truth. 9 I have now been preoccupied with transatlantic relations ever since a publisher turned up at my door at the University of Essex in autumn 1989, just before the Berlin Wall came down, and asked me what I was working on.

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