People between the ages of 18 and 29 appear to have complicated views about multilateral institutions and their ability to act in the international sphere according to Harvard Public Opinion Project’s Spring 2016 Poll. For example, only about 37 percent of respondents in this age group trust the United Nations to do “the right thing” all or most of the time, while a large majority—60 percent—think it can only be trusted sometimes, or never. This lack of confidence in the United Nations suggests that Millennials are disillusioned with the institution’s capacity to effectively handle international crisis, a view frequently espoused by conservatives who believe the United States should act independent of international organizations.
In contrast to these views of the United Nations, young people have a generally positive view of the United States military’s ability to act successfully: 51 percent, a slight majority, trust it to do the right thing all or most of the time, while 47 percent do not. This view may explain Millennials’ lack of faith in multilateral organizations: the logical alternative to working with the United Nations would be to rely on the U.S. military’s judgment and action. Likewise, a majority of this population—57 percent—also supports the United States sending ground troops to participate in a military campaign against the Islamic State, the international crisis most salient right now.
However, many Millennials support the concept of multilateralism in the abstract. A full two thirds of participants thought that “the United States should let other countries and the United Nations take the lead in solving international crises and conflicts,” while only 28 percent thought that the “United States [itself] should take the lead in solving” such crises. This statistic is surprising, especially given that participants expressed more trust in the U.S. military’s ability to solve international crises than in that of the United Nations, and thus would be expected to support U.S. leadership and unilateralism.
This statistic suggests, fundamentally, that while many young people agree multilateralism is better than unilateralism in theory, the international institutions themselves have somehow failed to attract support. When the questions are specific and name the U.S. military and the United Nations explicitly, support for multilateralism drops significantly, indicating that the practice of multilateralism has been inadequate in the international sphere, and those who would otherwise support it, instead, turn to the U.S. military to act.
It is difficult to tell what effect, if any, these findings could have on foreign policy. On one hand, the general support for multilateralism in theory could signal a shift from the unilateral policies of President Bush and a continuance of President Obama’s support for international organizations. On the other hand, the lack of trust when it comes to the organizations themselves could lead to a shift in preference for unilateral action, and particularly for U.S. military action. Regardless of the future effects, these findings point out an important contradiction in the views of young people, which exhibits that opinions about international affairs are characterized by a divide between theory and practice.