Episode 21: American Foreign Policy’s Diversity Problem

We here at the Eurasia Group Foundation are very curious about the extent to which US foreign policy reflects the interests of the American public. In today’s episode, we turn our attention to an important group: Black Americans. Black Americans make up 12 percent of the national population. They are over-represented in the rank and file of the US military, but still under-represented in foreign policy circles. What are their perceptions of America’s role in the world? Recent polling shows 80 percent of Black Americans have favorable views of the US military, but are far less supportive than the general public of deploying those forces abroad. Why? We dig into this and more with historian Chris Shell and former State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter.

Jalina Porter served as Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the Department of State under the Biden-Harris Administration. Originally hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jalina is also a graduate of Howard University, Georgetown University, and the University of Oxford.

Christopher Shell is a fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. At Carnegie, Christopher leads a project that examines the attitudes and opinions of Black Americans on US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.

This podcast episode includes references to the Eurasia Group Foundation, now known as the Institute for Global Affairs.

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