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10 Brown J. World Aff. 167 (2003-2004)
The Threat of International Terrorism and the Image of the United States Abroad

handle is hein.journals/brownjwa10 and id is 455 raw text is: The Threat of International Terrorism and the Image of the United States Abroad VLADIMIR SHLAPENTOKH AND JOSHUA WOODS Researchers Michigan State University THERE CAN BE FEW ANAfYlTICAL tasks more complicated than tracing the origin of one country's attitudes toward another. The task is especially difficult in the case of the United States, a country with high visibility in foreign affairs, no military or economic equals in the world, and an infinite number of international contacts. Any effort to gauge international views of the United States must take into account numerous causal factors. Drawing from the rich literature on anti-Americanism, one type of factor in- fluencing attitudes towards the United States may be described as external. Several authors have proposed that external factors are attitudes toward the United States de- termined by the character of U.S. foreign policies and actions, ranging from military campaigns to the export of Hollywood movies. Other authors emphasize internal factors as causal agents. They argue that foreign attitudes derive from the particular psychological, cultural, or political aspects of each nation. The relative importance of the classification of these two factors has become a subject of heated debate both inside and outside the United States, leading to the polarization of public discussion on the United States' image abroad. EXTERNAL VERSUS INTERNAL FACrORS Authors who focus on external factors tend to highlight the deleterious effects of U.S.. economic and cultural expansion, foreign policies, and military actions. Their main goal is often to corroborate an empirical basis for negative assessments of the United VLADIMIR SHLAPENTOKH and JOSHUA WOODS are the directors of the World Attitudes Project, a study of international press coverage of the United States. Shlapentokh is a professor of sociology at Michigan State University. Woods is a doctoral student in the same department. Copyright © 2004 by the Brown Journal of World Affairs WINTER / SPRING 2004 * VOLUME X, ISSUE 2