Public Security Perspectives: American Views on Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, Energy and the Environment, 2009

摘要

We report findings from a national Internet survey of the US general public conducted in mid-2009 that investigates concerns about the proliferation of nuclear weapons (with emphases on the cases of North Korea and Iran), evolving views on the efficacy of nuclear deterrence, and preferences for the future of US nuclear weapons. Our analysis of public views on terrorism include assessments of the evolving threat, public tolerance for intrusive domestic measures for preventing terrorism, and perceived effectiveness of domestic efforts to prevent terrorism in the US. We also report findings from a national public survey on US energy and environmental security administered by Internet in mid-2009. Key areas of investigation include how factual knowledge about global climate change is related to support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how public knowledge of energy issues relates to preferences for future energy policies. Additionally, we investigate how different sources of energy are perceived in terms of attributes, costs, risks, and preferences, and we analyze how public beliefs about nuclear energy are structured, to include risk/benefit tradeoffs and preferences for additional nuclear generation. Where possible, findings from each survey are compared with previous surveys in this series for analyses of trends.