Released: March 18, 2010

Indonesia: The Obama Effect

When President Barack Obama travels to Indonesia, where he lived for several years as a child, he will visit a country where his personal popularity has dramatically transformed America’s image. Of course, Indonesia is not alone in this pattern – Obama’s election led to better ratings for the United States in many nations around the globe. However, Indonesia – the world’s largest predominantly Muslim country – is an outlier in the Muslim world, where opinions of the U.S. remain mostly negative.

Over the last decade, Indonesian opinions about the U.S. have fluctuated considerably. A 2002 poll by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project found that roughly six-in-ten Indonesians (61%) had a favorable view of the U.S., while only 36% expressed an unfavorable view.

Read complete commentary at pewresearch.org.