What is the name of the journal article (or book) and what are its coordinates?
Ron Krebs and I wrote a book chapter, titled “The U.S.: A (Mostly) Hands-Off Superpower” in the recently published book: States and their Nationals Abroad: Support, Co-Opt, Repress. The volume includes great analysis of numerous countries including: China; Russia; Germany; the U.K.; and India, amongst others.
What’s the argument?
U.S citizens abroad receive little direct support across a variety of areas. U.S. citizens abroad typically must make their own arrangements when faced with a crisis that threatens their safety. They face multiple logistical barriers to voting from overseas, such that only 7.8% of them voted in the 2020 election. Government programs that provide financial assistance to Americans abroad serve, at most, only several thousand Americans per year, if that.
By contrast, U.S. businesses operating overseas can access a robust set of services provided by different government agencies; U.S military personnel abroad generally receive strong protections including through status of force agreements (SOFAs). These often stipulate, for example, that American military personnel must be tried in U.S military courts instead of in their host countries.
The U.S. government might offer limited direct services to its citizens abroad, but it provides robust indirect support. It creates and maintains the global conditions under which (some) of its citizens can accrue substantial riches.
Why should we care?
This information matters to Americans that live, work, and travel abroad, who the U.S. government generally does little to protect or support. At a time when roughly four in 10 Americans have “considered” moving abroad (although the data suggest most aren’t leaving, yet) it is important for them to understand that support for most Americans abroad is quite limited.
It also matters to scholars of world politics, who seldom pay much systematic attention to the topic.
Why will we find the chapter persuasive?
We collect and synthesize information from numerous government and academic sources focusing on the problems Americans living, traveling, and working abroad face including voting difficulties; travel restrictions; and threats to physical security (including hostage situations).
Our data is drawn from three main categories. First, government records on the number and location of Americans living abroad and the support they receive. This data comes primarily from the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), the Government Accountability Office, and the Department of State. For information on surveillance and travel restrictions we relied on work by Joshua Reeves, David Lyon, and Sam Lebovic. Discussion of U.S. citizens being taken hostage drew primarily on the work of Danielle Gilbert and Piché Gaëlle Rivard.
Why did you decide to write it in the first place?
We know that millions of Americans live and travel abroad. But the government does not even maintain an authoritative count of the actual numbers. In 2020 FVAP estimated there were 4.8 million U.S. citizens living abroad, whereas the U.S. State Department estimated 9 million. We hoped that our survey of the subject will prove useful to not just policymakers, but ordinary Americans who are considering traveling or living abroad.
What would you most like to change about the piece, and why?
Due to space constraints we had to eliminate much of the history examining how the U.S. government treated its citizens abroad in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In the original draft we had a detailed exploration of the Barbary Wars and a discussion of the evolution of the U.S. diplomatic corps in the 19th century.
How much difficulty did you have getting the piece accepted?
The editors, Klaus Brummer and Šumit Ganguly, deftly managed the nuts and bolts of the publication process. We had a great experience with the review and editing process at Cambridge University Press.
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