Global IssuesViews of U.S. Influence Steadily Climb Under Obama
For the third straight year, views of the United States continued to improve during 2010, according to the annual BBC World Service Country Rating Poll released Monday.
Nearly half (49 percent) of the almost 29,000 respondents said that Washington's influence was 'mainly positive' in 2010, compared with 20 percent, mostly in predominantly Muslim countries, who said it was 'mainly negative'.
That marked a major improvement over the 2007 poll, when only 28 percent of respondents said the U.S. exercised a 'mainly positive' influence, and 52 percent said its influence was 'mainly negative'.
The new survey, which was based on interviews of nearly 29,000 respondents in 27 countries around the world, found that Germany was rated most positively (62 percent) of the 16 countries that respondents were asked to assess, while Iran was ranked least popular (16 percent).
Views of Brazil (49 percent favourable) improved most dramatically during 2010, up nine percentage points from last year's poll. Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), attributed the increase to a variety of factors.
'Brazil is perceived as doing well economically at a time when much of the rest of the world isn't; they had a peaceful transition to a female president, and (former President Luis Inacio) Lula (da Silva) showed a sense of autonomy and independence in his foreign policy and generated an air of self-confidence on the world stage,' Kull, whose programme helped conduct the BBC poll, told IPS.
South Africa also improved its ratings sharply over the past year (from 35 to 42 percent favourable), presumably as a result of the visibility it received around last summer's World Cup soccer tournament.
'People probably saw more about South Africa than they had previously, knowing that it had come out of the transition led by (former President Nelson) Mandela,' Kull said.
The 27 countries covered in the latest survey, most of which was conducted in December, included the three nations of North America - Canada, the U.S., and Mexico; Brazil; Peru and Chile. European countries included Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Turkey.
Also included were China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia in the greater Asian region. Polling also took place in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Respondents were given a list of 16 nations and the European Union and asked whether they exercised a 'mainly positive' or 'mainly negative' influence on the world. The list included the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, North Korea, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, and South Africa.
Respondents could also volunteer that they were neutral or didn't know or care to express a clear opinion one way or the other.
Aside from the improvements in global views of Brazil and South Africa was the continued steady increase in Washington's standing since 2007, the year before the election of President Barack Obama.
'You're seeing some consolidation of the 'Obama effect,' with improvement even in some majority Muslim countries, particularly in Indonesia, but also some significant movement in Turkey,' said Kull.
Anti-U.S. sentiment has been particularly pronounced since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Indeed, 35 percent of Turkish respondents said they viewed U.S. influence favourably in the latest survey; only 13 percent took that position one year ago. Negative views fell from 70 percent to 49 percent. In Pakistan, favourable views of the U.S. also increased somewhat — from nine percent last year, to 16 percent this year.
In Egypt, on the other hand, 'mainly positive' views of the U.S. fell from 45 percent last year to only 26 percent this year, according to the survey, which was conducted in Egypt in early December, before the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak from power.
Favourable views of the U.S. were strongest in the Philippines (90 percent), Ghana (84 percent), Nigeria (76 percent), and South Korea (74 percent). Negative views were strongest in China (53 percent), Egypt (50 percent), Turkey (49 percent), and Canada (47 percent), just ahead of Pakistan (46 percent).
Overall, 19 of the 27 countries gave U.S. influence positive ratings, while six leaned negative, and two were roughly evenly divided.
China also improved its standing in 2010 with an average global approval rating of 42 percent. China was most popular in Nigeria (85 percent), and elsewhere in Africa, as well as Pakistan (66 percent), Indonesia (63 percent), and the Philippines (62 percent).
Negative views of China, on the other hand were strongest in Western Europe, particularly France (64 percent) and Germany (62 percent). Thirty-five percent of U.S. respondents said they considered China's influence to be positive, compared to 51 percent who said it was mainly negative.
Views of the other Asian giant, India, improved significantly over the past year, according to the survey, with the most positive views found in South Korea (66 percent), Italy (61 percent), Nigeria (57 percent), and the U.S. (56 percent). Overall, its influence was rated positively by an average of 42 percent, tied with South Africa.
The four least positively viewed countries - Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Israel - were also rated the most negatively. Fifty-nine percent of respondents rated Iran's influence as mainly negative; 56 percent, Pakistan's; 55 percent North Korea's; and 49 percent, Israel's.
Negative views towards Iran increased significantly over the past year in several Western countries, notably Britain (from 59 percent to 79 percent) last year); Canada (from 60 percent to 79 percent); and the U.S. (from 69 percent to 87 percent). Of the 27 countries, 25 had predominantly negative views of Iran; only Pakistan leaned positively.
Negative views of North Korea were strongest in South Korea (95 percent), Japan (91 percent), and the U.S. (86 percent). In China, Pyongyang's closest ally, negative views outran positive views by 51 to 34 percent. Only in Ghana did positive views outnumber negative views.
Pakistan was viewed most negatively — 70 percent or more — by the U.S., Brazil, the Western European countries, Australia, and the Philippines. Aside from Pakistan itself, Turkey (56 percent) and Indonesia (39 percent) were the only countries where favourable views outnumbered unfavourable ones.
Israel, which has always ranked close to the bottom in the BBC survey, was the only one of the four for which negative views diminished — albeit by only two percentage points — in 2010. The Jewish state was seen most positively by respondents in the U.S. (43 percent), but 41 percent of U.S. respondents saw its influence as negative. Israel was seen most negatively in the predominantly Muslim countries of Egypt (78 percent), Turkey (77 percent), and Indonesia (68 percent).
Besides Germany, the most positively rated countries included Britain, Canada, Japan, France, Brazil, and the U.S. in that order.
*Jim Lobe's blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service