America in the World

How the World sees America

Forgive us. We've been away for too long. We're now back and promise regular updates.

A good place to start is to look at how the US is currently seen by countries around the world. The following data comes from Pew.

KENYA, NIGERIA, SOUTH KOREA AND POLAND HAVE MOST FAVOURABLE VIEW OF AMERICA...
...JORDAN, EGYPT, PAKISTAN, TURKEY HAVE LEAST FAVOURABLE VIEW

MORE FRENCH CITIZENS HAVE A FAVOURABLE VIEW OF AMERICA THAN BRITONS

More.

SUPPORT WITHIN BRITAIN FOR AMERICA'S PRESIDENT BOOMED AFTER OBAMA WAS ELECTED AND HAS REMAINED STRONG...

THE JUMP WAS MUCH LESS IN INDIA BUT STILL SIGNIFICANT...

More Americans seek 'withdrawal from world' than at any time for forty years

Isolationism has soared to a forty year high according to new research from the Pew Forum:

 The Wall Street Journal reviewed the polling in this video:

Anti-Americanism has declined across the world since Barack Obama's election

Late last month the Pew Global Attitudes Project published its regular polling on global attitudes toward the USA.

The increases in 'US favourability' are particularly substantial in France, Germany, Spain and, outside Europe, in Indonesia.

America led by Obama has maintained support in parts of the world where George W Bush was reasonably popular.  See the graph opposite for resilient or improving numbers in India, Japan, Israel and throughout Africa.

What the Obama administration has yet to prove is that increased favourability translates into concrete gains for American policy goals.  Former UN Ambassador John Bolton is sceptical.

Obama effect lifts America above France, Germany and Japan in esteem of Britons

It may be a temporary effect but there has been a significant improvement in British citizens' view of America since Senator Barack Obama won last Tuesday's General Election.

PoliticsHome.com has been tracking the regard with which British citizens hold other nations for six months.  The biggest previous shifts were towards China (during its earthquake and then the Olympics) and then towards Russia (when opinion soured markedly during the conflict with Georgia).  The 'Obama effect' is greater than any of those three previous big shifts.

BRITISH VOTERS' VIEW OF AMERICA, CHINA AND RUSSIA

Please click on image to enlarge.

Comparing America with more mainstream nations produces a less dramatic picture but it is notable that since Barack Obama was elected America has overtaken France, Germany and Japan in the number of British adults holding a positive view minus those holding a negative view:

In alliance with PoliticsHome.com, AmericaInTheWorld will continue to watch how approval of America changes in response to Barack Obama's decisions.  The PoliticsHome5000 tracks the opinions of a politically balanced panel of 5,000 UK citizens.

Are we getting the full story from pollsters that aim to teach us about the world's view of the US?

AITW's Tim Montgomerie has answered this question over at The Guardian.

How might next week's election impact anti-Americanism in Australia?

Today's Australian quotes Brendan O'Connor - a "leading expert" on anti-Americanism - claiming that next Tuesday's presidential election will have a decisive impact on anti-Americanism in Australia. If John McCain is elected, it is likely to "flare up". He attributes this view to polls showing support for Obama in the country, with 62% of Australians believing ties with America would improve under a President Obama.

Associate-Professor O'Connor also observes of Australia's politicians the degree to which neither party leader has attempted to make electoral use of anti-Americanism. This is in contast to the approach of the last German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder (right), who made much of his opposition to the Bush Administration during the country's 2002 Federal Elections, in which he was re-elected. However, he predicts that in fact relations between the new Australian Prime Minister's predecessor John Howard and the departing President George W. Bush were so strong they may be difficult to match.

In one of our web briefings discussing anti-Americanism, America in the World asked if Barack Obama's election would in fact provide the answer to global anti-Americanism.

Improving US standing in the world is Americans' top foreign policy priority

MarketWatch reports a poll on America's foreign policy priorities, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The poll shows overwhelming concern about improving America's standing in the world, which ranks as the highest priority, above "protecting the jobs of American workers".

The article summarises the main conclusions:

• A large majority of Americans (81% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats) believe improving the U.S. standing in the world should be a "very important" foreign policy goal
• Americans on both sides of the aisle endorse talking to leaders of "unfriendly" governments including Cuba (70%), North Korea (68%), Iran (65%), Burma (63%) and Zimbabwe (61%)
• A majority of Americans (67%) do not support an open-ended commitment to Iraq.

22% of world opinion blames US or Israel for 9/11

On the seventh anniversary of 9/11:

"A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 17 nations finds that majorities in only nine of them believe that al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In no country does a majority agree on another possible perpetrator, but in most countries significant minorities cite the US government itself and, in a few countries, Israel. These responses were given spontaneously to an open-ended question that did not offer response options. On average, 46% say that al Qaeda was behind the attacks while 15% say the US government, 7% Israel, and 7% some other perpetrator. One in four say they do not know."

Noam Chomsky - a major critic of the Bush administration and, in many ways, an 'anti-American' - explains in the video below why the US government could not have had anything to do with 9/11:

Are world citizens in a better position to decide who should be America's next President?

Jonathan Freedland has written an extraordinary article for today's London Guardian.  Judge for yourself but there are two key weaknesses in his argument:

He assumes that world opinion is in a better place to judge the McCain v Obama choice than domestic American opinion.  Within that assumption is a view that (1) political debate within America is poorer than overseas and (2) that the international citizen is well-informed:

• We would contend that the best of the US media - the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times - is at least as good as say the London press.  Anyone who has submitted an op-ed article to either newspaper knows the quality control that these newspapers put writers through.  The blogosphere fact-checks US politicians in ways that do not happen in Europe.  Forty million Americans watched John McCain's address to the Republican Convention.  Nearly as many watched Barack Obama's speech.  Both in full.  How many UK voters have ever watched an hour's speech from David Cameron or Gordon Brown, let alone an American politician?
• Our launch poll showed how ignorant many UK citizens were of America.  They don't know very basic and very important key facts.  Are they well informed about the foreign policies of the candidates let alone their domestic policies?  Take Iraq.  The BBC has hardly covered the progress of the Petraeus surge.  British media opinion decided in 2005/06 that Iraq was a failure and reporting to UK citizens has not provided a serious opportunity to at least think again.

He also infers that a vote against Barack Obama might be racist: "A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president."  Many may assume that - particularly if they are encouraged to by the likes of Mr Freedland and Jacob Weisberg - but as Iain Dale has blogged, many Americans may not vote for him because he is one of the most inexperienced and liberal candidates for the US Presidency ever.  Will Mr Freedland explain that to Guardian readers or will he present the outcome in the worst possible light?  Judging from the cartoon that accompanies his piece (see scan below) our guess is that The Guardian is preparing to present a McCain victory as a terrible snub to the world...

What do Americans think of Britain?

America In The World's poll of almost 2,000 Britons, asking their views of the United States, drew much attention. The greatest response we received was to the section of the poll testing Britons' knowledge of America. Is anti-Americanism grounded in a good understanding of the country or a level of ignorance? The answers to the poll suggested some of the latter.

But one fair question kept arising in the responses: do Americans know that much about Britain? Even if Britons do wrongly think that polygamy is legal in some states or that America played a major role arming Saddam Hussein, don't Americans entertain similar misconceptions? Isn't it simply the case that no people can know other countries better than their own?

But there is a key difference. While polls show anti-Americanism to be rife among many in Britain, polls of Americans demonstrate exceptionally pro-British attitudes. Even if Americans are uninformed about Britain, it does not lead to anti-British sentiment.

In February 2006, the BBC World Service released the results from its poll of just under 40,000 people in 33 countries. It found that Americans thought Britain's influence on the world is mainly positive rather than mainly negative by a margin of 71% to 14%, or about five to one. Most surprisingly, Americans said they thought their own country's influence on the world is mainly positive rather than mainly negative by a margin of only 63% to 30%, or about two to one.

In some ways, this is a discouraging result for America In the World. We're unambiguously with the 63%, and wish that figure to be higher. But that Americans when polled can think more highly of Britain's influence than their own country's certainly acquits Americans of any charge of ignorant chauvinism towards Britain. If Americans aren't well-informed about Britain, then they like Britain in any case. By contrast, Britons in the same poll said America had a mainly negative influence by a margin of 57% to 36%.