《Center Still Holds》.pdf

The Center Still Holds The Center Still Holds Stephen Chaudoin, Helen V. Milner, and Liberal Internationalism Survives Dustin H. Tingley How has domestic po- litical support underlying U.S. foreign policy changed over time? A recent, prominent article by Charles Kupchan and Peter Trubowitz,1 along with many others, claims that the bipartisan liberal internationalist coalition driving U.S. foreign policy since World War II has “unraveled” over time.2 Rising partisan divisions have fractured this coalition and destroyed the consensus on interna- tionalism. According to Kupchan and Trubowitz, “As the partisan gyre in Washington widens, the political center is dying out, and support for liberal internationalism is dying with it.”3 With this diagnosis of increasing partisan- Stephen Chaudoin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Helen V. Milner is B.C. Forbes Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Poli- tics and International Affairs at Princeton. Dustin H. Tingley is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Politics at Princeton. The authors would like to thank Will Bullock, Terrence Chapman, Thomas Christensen, David Francis, Raymond Hicks, Sarah Hummel, Alexander Lanoszka, Adam Liff, John Londregan, Nolan McCarty, Jason McMann, Andrew Moravcsik, and Sean Theriault for feedback on previous versions of this article, as well as the anonymous referees. For the authors’ statistical analysis and description of data sources, see their appendix at /hmilner/ forthcoming%20papers/CenterHolds_DataAppendix.zip. 1. Charles A. Kupchan a