Building Trust: The Effect of US Troop Deployments on Public Opinion in Peru

Abstract

Since the 1950s, US military personnel have taken on an increasingly diverse set of responsibilities, including less traditional roles delivering disaster aid and engaging in public diplomacy. Focusing on a particular subset of deployments, humanitarian and civic-assistance deployments to Latin America, we examine the effect that a US military presence can have on public opinion in the host country. We focus on the microfoundations of popular support and use survey data and newly collected subnational data on deployments to examine the effect of these deployments on mass attitudes toward the US military and government in Peru. We find that these deployments do improve perceptions of the US military and government, and correlate with assessments of US influence that are more positive. Our findings bolster the conclusions of previous research that shows how aid can both improve public attitudes toward the donor country and address the foreign aid attribution problem.

US global military deployments, 1950–2020*

“…Bell et al (2017) find that a US military presence correlates with greater respect for physical integrity rights in the host country, although this effect only holds in the case of countries that are not strategically important to the US. Flynn et al (2019) find evidence that smaller, short-term humanitarian and civic-assistance deployments specifically have the potential to shape public views of the US in host countries. More recently, Allen et al (2020) study how it is that the interactions between deployed US military personnel and host country publics influence perceptions of the US abroad.…”

Outside the Wire: U.S. Military Deployments and Public Opinion in Host States

“…For example, someone who received medical care from a foreign physician may not know the nationality of that physician. A U.S. military presence that provides economic benefits to the host state can be an effective way of solving the attribution problem because people can easily identify U.S. military personnel with the United States (Flynn, Martinez Machain, and Stoyan 2019).…”

Exporting Influence: U.S. Military Training as Soft Power

“…U.S. professional military programs provide such a setting. U.S. military personnel are likely to establish long-lasting friendships with their foreign counterparts who they interact with in both military training and deployments Flynn, Martinez Machain, and Stoyan 2019). There is of course variation in how likely graduates are to keep in touch with each other.…”