Lee Hockstader writing in the Pew Trusts Magazine says:  Between George Washington’s admonition to avoid alliances with other countries and John F. Kennedy’s pledge to support any friend and oppose any foe in liberty’s defense, Americans have been torn over their role and obligations in the world, practically from our nation’s birth. The isolationist impulse, never long dormant, has coexisted uneasily, and sometimes unhappily, with the muscular ambitions and restless idealism of a continental power whose interests and reach are formidable.

After a decade of foreign wars that has sapped the nation’s prestige and confidence, Americans are now in many ways more ambivalent than ever. Even as they want the nation to remain strong, well-armed, and engaged in trade and economic relations overseas, their appetite for an assertive geopolitical role is drastically diminished. Likewise, their faith in the country’s ability to project power has plummeted. Even as Americans worry about the threat posed by terrorist attacks, islamic extremists, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and cyberwarfare, an unprecedented proportion of the public wants the United States to turn its gaze to domestic problems—quite literally, to mind its own business.

An America of two minds: That is the portrait painted by “America’s place in the World 2013,” the sixth edition of the Pew Research Center’s quadrennial survey of public attitudes on foreign affairs.    Is America Leaving the World Behind