Non-Profit Organizations, Public Opinion, and United States Foreign Policy
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300109 |
| Author | Alfred O. Hero |
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Opinion and Policy |
ALFRED
0.
HERO,
JR
Non-profit organizations,
public
opinion,
and
United
States
foreign
policy
Non-governmental
organizations
of
national
scope
with
a
signifi-
cant
interest in
world
affairs
number
at
least
several
thousand
in
the
United
States.
And there
are
several
thousand
more
whose
field
of
action
is
regional,
state,
or
local.'
Such agencies
in
the
United
States
are
more
numerous
and
more
diverse
in
purposes,
emphases,
programmes,
and
participation than
in any
other
coun-
try.
Most
of
these
organizations
are
mainly
domestic
in
their
con-
cerns,
representing
particular
economic,
business,
professional,
eth-
nic,
or
other
specific
interests,
or
'causes,'
but
they
also
devote
sig-
nificant
attention,
staff,
and
funds
to
the
international
aspects
of
their
particular
subject.
Organizations
in
such
diverse
fields
as
agri-
culture,
business,
science
and
technology,
and
labour,
almost
exclu-
sively
domestic
in
their
concerns
a
generation
ago,
have
come
to
devote
increasing
resources
and talents
to
international
phenomena
whose
relevance
to
their
domestic
purposes
has
become
more
and
more
apparent.
2
Although
some of
these
agencies
with
secondary
international
concerns
-
such
as
the
League
of
Women
Voters
-
are
analytical
and
educational in
both
philosophy
and
action,
most
advocate
interpretations
and
alternate
policies
which
reflect
their
own
particular
interests.
They
are
not
for
the
most
part
tax
ex-
Director,
World
Peace
Foundation,
Boston,
Mass;
author
of
several
books,
includ-
ing
American
Religious
Groups
View
Foreign
Policy
(1973),
and
numerous
articles.
i
William
0.
Chittick,
The
Group
Perspective
in
Foreign
Policy:
A
Report
on
U.S.
World
Affairs
Organizations
(NGO's)
(Athens,
Ga:
Report
on
a
study
pur-
suant
to
a
contract with
the
Department
of
State,
1977),
pp
36-7,
estimated
2500-5000.
Another
empirical inventory,
based on
somewhat
different
criteria,
unpublished,
was
conducted
in
1975-7
by
the
International
Conflict
and
Ameri-
can
Organizations
Project
of
the World
without
War
Council.
2
Chittick,
The Group
Prespective,
p
38.
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATIONS
AND
U.S.
FOREIGN
POLICY
151
empt,
non-profit, 'educational'
or
'charitable'
bodies,
and
thus
they
need
not
refrain
from
activities designed
to influence
legislation.
Indeed,
such
is
frequently
their
central
purpose.
Some
400
to
1OOO
agencies
at
the
national
or
regional
levels
deal
primarily
with
international
affairs.
3
Such agencies
have
mul-
tiplied
in
recent
years
as
new
issues
and
arguments
have
developed.
Perhaps
half
of
these
are
non-profit
educational,
research,
or
ser-
vice
institutions
which
operate
outside
the
universities.
Although
a
few
of
these
organizations
are
relatively
large,
with
staffs
of
twenty-five
and
up
and
budgets
of
a
million
dollars
or
more,
the
vast
majority
have
staffs
of
ten
or
less
and
annual
bud-
gets
of
no more
than
a
couple
of
hundred
thousand
dollars.
Many
of
local
or
even
regional
significance
have
budgets
of
less
than
six
figures,
and
staffs
of
only
two
or
three,
although additional
man-
power
is
provided
by
volunteers and
ad
hoc employees.
Some
are
primarily
oriented
to
research
and/or
the
policy
6lite;
others
at-
tempt
to
communicate
with
a
relatively
broader
segment
of
the
public.
More
deal with
international
phenomena
per
se
than
with
policy
issues.
Of
those
devoted
to
the
latter,
most
are
primarily
in-
terested in
United
States
policy;
but
those
dealing
with
the
former
attempt
to
consider questions
relevant
to
the
policies of a
number
of
countries.
While
most
are
interested
mainly
in
inter-state
rela-
tions
and
governmental
policies,
some focus
largely
on
one
or
an-
other
transnational
system.
A
few
of
these
organizations
consider
issues across
the spectrum
of
world
affairs
or
at
least
of
United
States
policy,
but
an
increas-
ing
number
specialize
in
a specific
geographic
or
political
area
or
functional domain.
Most
of
the
organizations
established
since
196o
have
been
in
social,
economic,
technical,
scientific,
and other
functional
fields
rather
than
in
areas
of
earlier concentration
such
as
defence,
strategic
relations and
collective
security,
relations
with
the
USSR,
its
allies
or
Western
Europe, or
general
political
issues.
Some
agencies
are research
oriented,
closely
linked
with
uni-
3
Chittick,
ibid,
p
38,
estimated
500,
including
university
agencies
which
in-
cluded
research
on
policy-relevant
issues.
The
inventory
of
the
World without
War
Council estimated
2000,
including
regional,
state,
and
local
bodies.
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