How Ideology Shapes America's View on the World

Ideologies help people understand the world around them. They provide a lens through which we arrange events and images into patterns, and they offer a menu of actions that seem appropriate in response to that pattern. Although leaders and states often subscribe consciously to certain ideologies, some ideas–such as religion or a belief in the goodness of an ideal like “freedom” or “democracy”–operate at such a fundamental level that we may not recognize them as ideologies at all.  This week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma features a panel of contributors to a new book on the influence of ideology in American foreign relations. Christopher McKnight Nichols of Ohio State University, Raymond Haberski, Jr, of Indiana University, and Emily Conroy-Krutz of Michigan State University join host Jeremi Suri of the University of Texas, Austin to discuss what ideology is, and explore the ways in which it has shaped, and continues to shape, America’s role in the world.  This discussion was hosted at the University of Texas, Austin on September 7, 2022.

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