STILL PRETTY PRUDENT - POST-COLD-WAR AMERICAN PUBLIC-OPINION ON THE USE OF MILITARY FORCE

Extending and further testing the theory advanced by Bruce Jentleson w ith post-cold war data, variations in U.S. public support for the use of military force are shown to be best explained by the principal poli cy objective for which military force is being used, with a third cate gory of ''humanitarian intervention'' added to the previous two of ''f oreign policy restraint'' and ''internal political change.'' The princ ipal policy objective theory is shown through a series of tests, inclu ding regression and logistic analyses, to offer the most powerful and parsimonious explanation, both directly superseding and indirectly sub suming such other alternative variables as interests, elite cues, risk , and multilateralism. These findings support the broader theoretical view of a rational public purposive and not purely reactive in its opi nion formulation and have important implications for the basic disposi tions of the types of military interventions the American public will and will not support in the post-cold war era.