The “Race Gap” in Foreign Policy Attitudes: Black and White Views on International Affairs | Naima Green-Riley

About the Event: Historically, research on racial differences in political attitudes in the United States has focused heavily on domestic politics. Recent work indicates that Black and White Americans often hold differing views on the use of force abroad and free trade at home; however, this article shows that racial gaps on international affairs are not confined to the realm of security or economic issues. Using a unique dataset of 1,504 foreign policy questions from nearly 19,000 Americans surveyed from 1975-2018, we show that racial gaps in foreign policy attitudes exist well beyond the issues explored in previous scholarship. Our results have important implications for the study of both public opinion in IR and race and ethnic politics.

Paper co-authored with Joshua Kertzer (Harvard University), Chryl Laird (University of Maryland-College Park), and Julian Wamble (The George Washington University).

About the Speaker: Naima Green-Riley is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her research interests include Chinese foreign policy, public opinion, and international political communication. Her ongoing work focuses on public diplomacy as performed by China and the United States and the role of race in public opinion about foreign policy.

Her research has been supported by the Wilson Center China Fellowship, the Morris Abrams Award in International Relations, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Coverage of her expertise and research have appeared in the Monkey Cage blog at the Washington Post, The Root, and a series at the National Bureau of Asian Research; furthermore, she has made public appearances at the Aspen Security Forum and the CSIS Future Strategy Forum.

She has a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University, an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA in International Relations with honors from Stanford University.  Prior to pursuing a Ph.D., she was a Pickering Fellow and a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of State, serving first in Egypt and then in China. 

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