Looking Ahead: Prospects for Effective Foreign Policy and Avenues for Further Research

In this concluding chapter to the edited volume, we recap key findings from the volume, discuss their implications for the effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy, and outline directions for further research. Key takeaways include the recognition that polarization is increasing in many dimensions of U.S. foreign policy, and that this trend is making U.S. foreign policy more volatile and diminishing America’s capacity to cooperate with other countries to address international challenges. Further work is needed to better understand issues including the relationship between economic interdependence and polarization, the extent to which U.S. polarization is changing the behavior of America’s adversaries, the influence of polarization on efforts to build or maintain international order, cross-national similarities and differences in the relationship between polarization and foreign policy, and the ways polarization affects opportunities for bridging the gap between scholarly research and foreign policy.