When knowledge is a double edged sword: Contact, media exposure, and American China policy preferences

Peter Gries will speak on US-China relations at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Abstract

US-China relations are unquestionably the most important bilateral state to state relationship of the 21st century. Yet while IR theorists debate the shifting balance of power or theorize power transitions, little work examines exactly how Americans and Chinese actually perceive each other and the world more broadly. This presentation presents selected results from two 2011 national Internet surveys exploring how Americans and Chinese actually think and feel about foreign countries. Remarkably, there is little evidence that considerations of relative power have any impact on American and Chinese foreign policy preferences. Feelings about foreign countries, instead, are much more strongly associated with foreign policy preferences. The impact of nationalism and ideology on foreign policy attitudes will also be discussed.

Biography:

Peter Hays Gries is the Harold J. & Ruth Newman Chair and Director of the Institute for US-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma. He is author of China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy (2004), co-editor of Chinese Politics: State, Society and the Market (2010) and State and Society in 21st-Century China: Crisis, Contention, and Legitimation (2004), and has written over two dozen academic journal articles and book chapters. His work focuses on nationalism, the political psychology of international affairs, and China's domestic politics and foreign policy.