As Chang Hao, professor of history at Ohio State University points out, just because the United States considered itself the leader of the Free World after World War Ⅱ, research in what were called "area studies" was centered on politics and economics, and scholars were rather too eager to achieve "instant results" that could be applied in formulating foreign, defense and economic policy.
張灝教授指出，二次大戰後，正因為美國以新興的「自由世界領導者」自居，因此它研究世界各國、各地區的所謂「區域研究」，都是以政治、經濟現況為主，而且難免「急功近利」，希望一切研究都能盡快和美國的外交、國防及經濟政策「搭上線」，發揮「實用價值」。