Summary
The Carnegie California Global Affairs Survey offers a new, detailed, policy-relevant examination of how Californians think of the rapidly shifting global dynamics in the twenty-first century. To be sure, California’s fate has long been linked to regional and global dynamics. California’s rise in the twentieth century was inextricably intertwined with U.S. foreign policy and global affairs more generally. From the influx of domestic labor for shipbuilding and aviation during World War II to the impact that transnational research networks around physics and computing had on educational institutions and industry, the state has been shaped by the movement of people, goods, ideas, and capital within the United States and globally. Similarly, through culture, ideas, innovation, and industry, California did much to shape the twentieth century, especially after World War II. Scholars, policymakers, and community leaders alike have done much work to bring those connections into relief—indeed, a global California is not a new thing.
Californians understand the importance and value of these connections and the activities that inform them. They see value in diplomacy and international development, linking international affairs to well-being in the United States. Nearly four in five Californians believe international engagement is important to American security and prosperity.
But the contours of global affairs that are emerging more clearly in the twenty-first century are indeed different from those of the Cold War and the subsequent decades of American hegemony. In its most recent benchmark analytical assessment, Global Trends, the National Intelligence Council put it as such:
In the international system, no single [country] is likely to be positioned to dominate across all regions or domains, and a broader range of actors will compete to shape the international system and achieve narrower goals . . . Rival powers will jockey to shape global norms,…
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