Description
Narratives of international decline occur frequently, often independent of “objective” measures of decline. For example, in the late 1950s John F. Kennedy railed against the so-called missile gap and declines in American prestige as the United States entered the 1960s. Yet his declinist rhetoric was built around myths that could not be sustained, even early on in his presidency. Why do narratives of international decline resonate with publics? In contrast to recent work that suggests that declining power leads to retrenchment, I argue that narratives of decline most often lead to public preferences of “punching back” against decline. Declinist narratives often sustain policies of global expansion to save face, regain lost glory, and reverse decline. In this paper, I explore the link between narratives of decline and foreign policy opinion using a survey experiment of US-based respondents. This research will have timely implications for US-China relations, debates over US decline, and the rhetoric of a major declinist: Donald Trump.
