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Obama Restores U.S. Intl Image to Pre-Bush Era
President Barack Obama has restored Washington's image virtually everywhere around the world close to the levels it enjoyed before former President George W. Bush took power in 2001, according to a major new international survey released here Thursday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project (GAP).
Favourability ratings for the United States have risen significantly compared to a year ago when Bush was still president, especially in Western Europe and almost as much in East Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, according to the 200-page report that was released with the poll. (...)
Andrew Kohut, who has directed all eight surveys GAP has published since 2000, attributed the improvement in Washington's standing primarily to Obama's popularity.
"The views of the U.S. are being driven much more by personal confidence in Obama than by opinions about his specific policies," Kohut said.
Indeed, in all but one of the countries covered by the survey, respondents expressed significantly more confidence - often by huge margins - that Obama "will do the right thing in world affairs" than they had said about Bush one year ago when GAP published its last survey. The one exception was Israel. (...)
[The latest survey] largely echoes the findings of other recent polls by the BBC and the University of Maryland's Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), particularly regarding Obama's international standing and confidence that he would guide U.S. foreign policy in a more multilateralist and less militarist direction.
Like those polls, however, the latest GAP survey also found a remarkable degree of scepticism about – and, in at least one case, outright opposition to – a specific U.S. policy.
Strong pluralities or solid and even overwhelming majorities in each country (except the U.S. itself) agreed with his decision to close the Guantanamo detention facility.
His decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by December 2011 drew even stronger support across the board, despite widespread scepticism among Washington's NATO allies, Turkey, and the Arab world, that U.S. efforts to establish a stable government there will succeed.
At the same time, strong pluralities and majorities in all but a handful of countries – Israel, India, Kenya, and Nigeria - opposed his decision to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. (...)
Nonetheless, U.S. anti-terrorism efforts are now seen more positively abroad than they were during the last years of the Bush administration. While majorities in only five countries said they favoured U.S.-led efforts against terrorism in 2007, majorities in 15 said they favoured them in 2009. (...)
Asked whether they considered the U.S. a "partner", an "enemy", or neither, significantly more respondents, ranging from 10 to 25 percent, in seven key countries – Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, India, Argentina, Nigeria, and Turkey – opted for "partner" than they did last year.
"Americans don't have to say they're from Canada when they travel abroad anymore," noted former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who chairs GAP's advisory board.
For all that, scepticism about U.S. policy, even under Obama, remains high.
With the notable exceptions of Germany, China, India, Israel, Brazil, Kenya, and Nigeria, firm majorities ranging as high as 84 percent (Jordan) believe Washington is not currently adhering to multilateral policies.
In all but five countries – France, India, South Korea, Kenya and Nigeria - more respondents said they see the U.S. as exercising a more negative than positive influence on their countries than the reverse.
Despite some modest improvements, Washington's status remains particularly problematic in the Arab Middle East and the larger Islamic world, according to the survey. (...)
Scepticism was also especially strong on the question of whether Obama would be fair in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While pluralities or majorities in every country answered in the affirmative, all of the predominantly Muslim countries - except Indonesia - and Russia disagreed.
On the other hand, Palestinian respondents who said they believed Obama would consider their interests in future diplomatic efforts rose from 27 percent before his speech last month in Cairo to 39 percent afterwards.
Overall, the percentage of respondents in every predominantly Muslim country who expressed favourable views of the U.S. rose – albeit relatively modestly – compared to a year ago. The only the exception was Pakistan, where positive assessments fell from 17 percent to 15 percent.
Moreover, for the first time since GAP launched its surveys in 2002, the most recent poll found there was more confidence in a U.S. president than in Osama bin Laden in five of the seven predominantly Muslim nations. The two exceptions where bin Laden retains an edge were Palestine and Pakistan, according to the survey.
* Katie Mattern contributed to this article.
