How Is the American Foreign Policy Establishment Structured? A Multiple Correspondence Analysis of the US China Field

Challenging visions of the US national security “Establishment” as either hamstrung by ideological homogeneity bordering on groupthink, or riven by irreconcilable party political divisions, we deploy multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to uncover empirically the structure of the China segment of the US national security community. MCA—a form of geometric data analysis—finds latent structures in categorical datasets. Using an original dataset of organizations with a strong presence on China issues, we show that the China organizational field is far from homogenous, but is split less between left and right than over degree of political engagement, separating older think tanks and cultural organizations from business-focused research and consulting firms, and academic/research institutions outside from politically oriented groups located primarily within the Beltway. We explore our findings using the Trump and Obama administrations’ choice of locations to give speeches and remarks on US–China relations.