Opinion Leader Surveys
The Council has conducted surveys of US foreign policy opinion leaders beginning in 1978. Run in parallel to the Council’s annual survey of the public and in collaboration with several of the Council’s nonresident fellows, the opinion leaders survey is conducted among members of different professional groups with an outsized influence on or knowledge of US foreign policy issues. Groups polled include staff at executive branch agencies, Congress, academia, think tanks, media, interest groups and NGOs, religious institutions, labor unions, and business.
About the Survey Team
Vice President, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy
Dina Smeltz, a polling expert, has more than 25 years of experience designing and fielding international social and political surveys. Prior to joining the Council to lead its annual survey of American attitudes on US foreign policy, she served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the US State Department's Office of Research from 1992 to 2008.
Director, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy
Craig Kafura is the director of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, and a Pacific Forum Young Leader. At the Council, he coordinates work on public opinion and foreign policy and is a regular contributor to the public opinion and foreign policy blog Running Numbers.
Marshall M. Bouton Fellow for Asia Studies
Karl Friedhoff was a Korea Foundation-Mansfield Foundation US-Korea Nexus Scholar and a member of the Mansfield Foundation’s Trilateral Working Group prior to joining the Council. Previously, he was a program officer in the Public Opinion Studies Program at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies based in Seoul, South Korea.
Research Assistant, Public Opinion and US Foreign Policy
Lama El Baz joined the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in 2023 as a research assistant for the public opinion and US foreign policy team within the Lester Crown Center. She is passionate about public opinion research, data analytics, and the regional affairs of the Middle East and North Africa.
