8
Institutionalization
The ongoing attempt to develop public opinion and foreign policy as a field of
political science requires not only developing theory and knowledge, but also establishing
regular conference presences and institutional bases. These include developing a
"section" at the Midwest Political Science Association and a series of panels and a
potential section at the APSA. The well received 2003 Midwest Panels on “Public
Opinion and Foreign Policy: The State of the Art” (6-6/4-27: 4/4/03) (Katz, Chanley,
Sobel, Shapiro) and Comparative Foreign Policy were complemented by the inclusion of
a public opinion presentation in the special Midwest panel on “a discussion of motives,
plans and prospects” about the War in Iraq (Gottlieb, Herrmann, Rothmans, Singer,
Tabor, Sobel, 2003) during the height of the crisis in April 2003. A standing room only
interest in the 2003 American Political Science Association panel (20-11; 8/28/03),
“Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: State of the Art” with Ole Holsti, Richard Sobel &
Eric Shiraev, John Mueller, Andrew Katz, Peter Furia and Russell Lucas, and I. M.
Destler, Bruce Jentleson reflects a developing constituency. The 2004 MWPSA (Katz,
Furia/Lucas, Sobel/Shiraev, McCormick, Abramson) roundtable and APSA roundtable (5-
1: 9/1/04) Voeten, Sobel, Katz, Furia, Holsti, Genna extend the series and the insights. To
facilitate an overview of these developmental and state of the art papers and panels,
Appendix B provides details.
Developing public opinion on foreign policy as a field also requires courses and
comparative texts on the topic (People and Their Opinions: Thinking Critically about
Public Opinion, Longman, forthcoming 2005) that provide students with the insights to
pursue the elements in Holsti’s three criteria (1996, 192).. Texts on domestic politics and
Convention