Special to CNN

With less than three months to go in the U.S. presidential election, the candidates’ debate over America’s place in the world can only be expected to escalate. Republican contender Mitt Romney is likely to echo a theme he developed in the spring primary campaign: America’s stature on the world stage has suffered during President Barack Obama’s time in the White House. President Obama can be expected to counter that America isn’t in decline; in fact, during his tenure U.S. influence has rebounded.

This debate is broadly about American power. But power is a nuanced concept. It manifests itself both through military muscle and cultural influence. The candidates’ stump speeches rarely delineate this distinction. But global publics do. Recent opinion surveys suggest that people outside the United States question American hard power and increasingly embrace U.S. soft power.

Whoever is president in 2013, the success abroad of his foreign policy may depend on achieving the right balance in the exercise of American hard and soft power.

Read the full commentary at CNN’s Global Public Square blog

For instance, looking at the 16 countries surveyed in both 2007 and 2012, the median percentage saying they like American ways of doing business has increased by 11 percentage points, while the percentage who dislike the U.S. approach has declined by six points.

The median percentage who say it is a good thing that American ideas and customs are spreading to their country has also increased over the last five years, but it remains the minority viewpoint. Instead, even in countries where U.S. soft power has a strong appeal, there are serious concerns about “Americanization.” Among the countries surveyed in both 2007 and 2012, a median of 70% say it is bad that U.S. culture is spreading to their country.

American soft power consistently proves especially appealing among young people. In particular, U.S. music, movies, and television resonate well among those under age 30, and in several countries the same is true for American ideas about democracy.

American Democracy

U.S. style democracy receives mixed reviews around the globe. Italy is the only European country in which a majority (58%) says they like American ideas about democracy. However, views in Europe have become much more positive on this question since it was last asked in 2007 – a time when ratings for the U.S. were generally low across the region.

The percentage who say they like American ideas about democracy has increased significantly in Spain (+30 points), Italy (+20 points), France (+20 points), Germany (+14 points), Poland (+13 points) and Britain (+9 points).

In Russia, which experienced a surge in pro-democracy demonstrations following last December’s parliamentary elections, only 26% like U.S. ideas about democracy, little changed from 21% in 2007.

Overall, American style democracy receives negative reviews in the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed. However, in Tunisia, the country that launched the Arab Spring, six-in-ten say they like these ideas. And significant minorities offer a favorable response in Lebanon (44%), Egypt (42%) and Jordan (42%).

The Japanese (64%) are especially likely to endorse American ideas regarding democracy. Meanwhile, 52% of Chinese also hold this view, while just 29% say they dislike these ideas. Brazilians are divided on this question (48% like, 45% dislike). Only about four-in-ten Mexicans (41%) like these ideas, but this is up from just 29% five years ago.

In several countries, young people are more likely to embrace American conceptions of democracy, including Tunisia, where 72% of 18-29 year-olds hold this view, compared with 48% of those age 50 and older. Roughly six-in-ten Chinese (59%) under 30 back American style democracy, compared with four-in-ten of those 50 and older. Notable age gaps also exist in Russia, Lebanon, and Poland.

For their part, Americans believe the U.S. should be working to strengthen democracy in other countries – 63% say the U.S. should promote democracy around the world, while just 29% believe it should not. Independents (57%) are somewhat less likely to hold this view than either Democrats (71%) or Republicans (69%).

American Popular Culture

Popular culture continues to be a strong suit of America’s global image, and views of American music, movies and television have improved in many countries since 2007.

Ratings for U.S. popular culture have generally increased in Europe, and solid majorities across the European Union nations in the survey say they like American music, movies and television, including more than seven-in-ten in Spain (79%), Italy (74%) and France (72%).

Meanwhile, 69% in Japan and Brazil say they like these U.S. cultural exports. The same percentage now embrace American popular culture in Mexico, up from 53% in 2007. It is also more popular today among Russians than it was five years ago (48% now, 38% in 2007).

The Chinese remain divided on this question (43% like, 43% dislike), while Indians on balance say they do not care for American music, movies and television (19% like, 47% dislike).

U.S. popular culture also gets generally poor reviews in most of the majority Muslim nations surveyed, especially Pakistan, where 78% dislike it. Still, three-in-ten or more say they enjoy American music, movies and television in Jordan (39%), Egypt (36%) and Turkey (30%). And in Tunisia, opinions are fairly divided: 42% like U.S. pop culture, while 49% do not. Moreover, it is largely popular in Lebanon, where 65% like it, including 81% of Christians, 60% of Sunnis, and 48% of Shia.

Attitudes toward American popular culture vary dramatically by age around the world. In 19 of 20 countries, there is a double-digit difference on this question between those under age 30 and those 50 and older.

For instance, in Germany a remarkable 94% of 18-29 year-olds like U.S. music, movies, and television, compared with 47% of people age 50 and older. Age gaps nearly as large are also found in Russia and France.

Moreover, in several countries where overall ratings for the U.S. are poor or at best mixed, most young people embrace American cultural exports. For example, majorities of 18-29 year-olds in Greece (79%), Tunisia (63%) and China (56%) like this aspect of America’s image.

The exception to the global pattern is Pakistan – a country where the U.S. consistently receives low ratings among young and old alike. Just 10% of Pakistanis under age 30 express a positive view of American pop culture.

In addition to an age gap, in several countries there is a significant education gap, with college educated respondents offering a more positive assessment of American music, movies and television. The gap is especially large in China, where 74% of those with a college education like U.S. pop culture, compared with 42% of those with less education.

When Americans are asked whether they like foreign music, movies and television, 53% say they do, while 39% respond that they do not. Americans have warmed a bit toward foreign popular culture over the last five years – in 2007, they were almost evenly split, with 45% saying they like it and 44% saying they dislike it. There is a strong partisan divide on this question – most Democrats (59%) and independents (56%) like music, movies and television from other countries, but only 41% of Republicans agree.

American Style Business Popular in Arab World, Not Europe

The American approach to business is admired in Arab nations where some other aspects of America’s image are seen in a negative light. Indeed, the four Arab countries surveyed are the only countries in which half or more say they like American ways of doing business – 63% hold this view in Lebanon, 59% in both Jordan and Tunisia, and 52% in Egypt.

In the two non-Arab majority Muslim nations, U.S. style business is less well-regarded. Only 28% of Pakistanis and 14% of Turks say they like American ways of conducting business. Still, views in both countries have become more positive since 2007.

American business gets some of its poorest marks in Europe, although ratings are up by double-digits in five of the EU nations surveyed. Views of U.S. business are particularly negative among German (only 26% like), Greek (29%) and French (38%) respondents. At 47%, the Czech Republic offers the most positive opinions about American business in the EU. However, young people express a more positive attitude in several EU nations, including Britain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland and France.

In Japan, attitudes toward the U.S. approach to business are on balance negative. But a 43%-plurality of Chinese approve of the American approach, including 66% of those with a college education.

Views are divided on this question in both Latin American nations included in the survey, Brazil (45% like, 45% dislike) and Mexico (43% like, 47% dislike).

Americans generally like the idea of promoting U.S. business practices to the rest of the world – 62% believe this is a good idea, up from 55% in 2007. Large majorities of Republicans (71%) and Democrats (66%), as well as most independents (55%), agree.

Science and Technology

America’s scientific and technological prowess is respected around the globe. Majorities or pluralities in 18 of 20 countries say they admire the U.S. for its scientific and technological advances. In 12 nations, 70% or more hold this view.

Overall, there has been relatively little change on this question over the last five years, since American scientific and technological achievements were also well-regarded in 2007.

Majorities in all of the EU countries polled admire the U.S. for these achievements, although significant minorities disagree in the Czech Republic (41%) and Germany (38%).

This aspect of America’s image is very popular in the four Arab nations surveyed: Tunisia (82% admire), Lebanon (77%), Egypt (72%) and Jordan (65%). Ratings are also generally positive in the Asian and Latin American nations included.

The two outliers on this question are Russia and Turkey. Russians have consistently voiced lukewarm attitudes about U.S. science and technology since the Pew Global Attitudes Project first asked this question in 2002. Turks, on the other hand, were once admirers of the U.S. in this regard. In 2002, 67% said they admired American scientific and technological advances, but by 2007 this had plunged to 37%. Today, it stands at 42%.

Americans overwhelmingly express pride in their country’s science and technology – 86% say they are proud of U.S. achievements in this area.

Spreading American Customs and Ideas

Even in many countries where various elements of America’s image are popular, there are concerns about the reach of U.S. influence. Japan is the only country in which a majority (58%) says it is a good thing that American customs and ideas are spreading to their country.

European attitudes toward the spread of American culture have grown somewhat more positive over the last five years, but there is still considerable opposition to Americanization. At 40%, Italians register the highest level of support for American ideas and customs among the EU nations surveyed.

Few embrace the spread of American culture in the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed, although many Lebanese (41%) do want American ideas and customs. Views differ considerably, however, among the country’s religious communities – 72% of Lebanese Christians say the spread of these ideas is a good thing; only 23% of Sunni and 13% of Shia Muslims agree.

A 43%-plurality in China endorse the spread of U.S. ideas and customs. Six-in-ten Chinese with a college education believe it is a good thing that these ideas are coming to China.

Attitudes toward American cultural influence are also relatively positive in Brazil, where 49% express a positive view and 47% a negative one. Mexicans, however, tend to have a negative opinion about ideas and customs from their neighbor to the north.

In most countries, young people are more likely than their older counterparts to say it is good that American ideas and customs are spreading. There is a gap of at least 20 percentage points between 18-29 year-olds and those 50 and older in Germany, Poland and Lebanon, and gaps of at least 10 points in nine other countries.

Americans like to see their own culture disseminated across the globe – three-in-four say it is good that American ideas and customs are spreading to other countries.

Global approval of President Barack Obama’s policies has declined significantly since he first took office, while overall confidence in him and attitudes toward the U.S. have slipped modestly as a consequence.

Europeans and Japanese remain largely confident in Obama, albeit somewhat less so than in 2009, while Muslim publics remain largely critical. A similar pattern characterizes overall ratings for the U.S. – in the EU and Japan, views are still positive, but the U.S. remains unpopular in nations such as Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, support for Obama has waned significantly in China. Since 2009, confidence in the American president has declined by 24 percentage points and approval of his policies has fallen 30 points. Mexicans have also soured on his policies, and many fewer express confidence in him today.

The Obama era has coincided with major changes in international perceptions of American power – especially U.S. economic power. The global financial crisis and the steady rise of China have led many to declare China the world’s economic leader, and this trend is especially strong among some of America’s major European allies. Today, solid majorities in Germany (62%), Britain (58%), France (57%) and Spain (57%) name China as the world’s top economic power.

Even though many think American economic clout is in relative decline, publics around the world continue to worry about how the U.S. uses its power – in particular its military power – in international affairs.

There remains a widespread perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally and does not consider the interests of other countries. In predominantly Muslim nations, American anti-terrorism efforts are still widely unpopular. And in nearly all countries, there is considerable opposition to a major component of the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy: drone strikes. In 17 of 20 countries, more than half disapprove of U.S. drone attacks targeting extremist leaders and groups in nations such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Americans are the clear outliers on this issue – 62% approve of the drone campaign, including most Republicans (74%), independents (60%) and Democrats (58%).

These are among the principal findings from a 21-nation survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project from March 17-April 20. The poll also finds that, despite disappointment with Obama’s policies, there is still considerable support for his re-election in many countries, especially in Europe. Roughly nine-in-ten in France (92%) and Germany (89%) would like to see him re-elected, as would large majorities in Britain (73%), Spain (71%), Italy (69%) and the Czech Republic (67%). Most Brazilians (72%) and Japanese (66%) agree. But in the Middle East there is little enthusiasm for a second term – majorities in Egypt (76%), Jordan (73%) and Lebanon (62%) oppose Obama’s re-election.

Overall Ratings for U.S. Mostly Positive

Majorities or pluralities in 12 countries express a favorable opinion of the United States, while the prevailing view is negative in only five nations. In three countries views are closely divided.

Attitudes toward the U.S. are generally more positive today than in 2008, the final year of the George W. Bush administration. The biggest improvements in America’s image have occurred among Europeans – in France, Spain, and Germany, the percentage of people with a positive view of the U.S. is at least 20 percentage points higher than in 2008.

However, some of the initial surge in pro-American sentiments that followed Obama’s election have waned in Western Europe, especially in Germany where 64% had a favorable opinion of the U.S. in 2009, compared with 52% today.

In Japan, 72% currently express a favorable opinion of the U.S., up from 50% four years ago. America’s image in Japan improved dramatically in 2011, due in part to American relief efforts following the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Fully 85% of Japanese respondents expressed a positive view of the U.S. in last year’s poll.

In a number of strategically important Muslim nations, America’s image has not improved during the Obama presidency. In fact, America’s already low 2008 ratings have slipped even further in Jordan and Pakistan.

Even in many nations where overall ratings for the U.S. remain low, however, certain aspects of American “soft power” are often well-regarded. For instance, the American way of doing business is especially popular in the Arab World – more than half in Lebanon (63%), Tunisia (59%), Jordan (59%) and Egypt (52%) say they like this element of America’s image.

Majorities or pluralities in 18 of 20 countries admire the U.S. for its science and technology, and most of the publics surveyed embrace American music, movies and television. Around the world, U.S. ideas about democracy and American ways of doing business have become more popular since Obama took office.

American soft power is often particularly appealing to young people. In particular, U.S. popular culture and American ideas about democracy are more popular among people under 30.

Still, even as they embrace certain features of American culture, people worry that it may crowd out their own cultures and traditions – majorities or pluralities in 17 of 20 countries say it is a bad thing that U.S. ideas and customs are spreading to their countries.

Disappointment With Obama’s Policies

While confidence in Obama has slipped, in many of the countries surveyed, people continue to express confidence in President Obama’s foreign policy leadership. In particular, he still gets extremely high ratings in much of Europe. More than seven-in-ten in Germany, France, Britain, the Czech Republic and Italy express confidence that Obama will do the right thing in world affairs. Big majorities in Japan and Brazil also hold this view.

There is little support for Obama, however, in the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed. Fewer than three-in-ten express confidence in him in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Jordan. And roughly a year after he ordered the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden, just 7% of Pakistanis have a positive view of Obama, the same percentage that voiced confidence in President George W. Bush during the final year of his administration.

Outside of Pakistan, however, Obama consistently receives higher ratings than Bush did in 2008. This is particularly true in Western Europe and Japan, but it is also true in several predominantly Muslim nations where Obama’s ratings – while not especially high – are nonetheless more positive than his predecessor’s.

In nearly every country where trends are available, support for Obama’s international policies has declined over the last three years. Even though most Europeans still endorse Obama’s policies, their enthusiasm has ebbed. Among the EU countries surveyed in both 2009 and 2012, a median of 78% approved of Obama’s policies in 2009, compared with 63% now. Among Muslim nations, the median has slipped from 34% to 15%. Major declines have also taken place in China, Japan, Russia and Mexico.

On a number of specific issues, there is a sense that Obama has not lived up to the expectations people had for him when he first took office. The 2009 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that many believed the new American president would act multilaterally, seek international approval before using military force, take a fair approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and make progress on climate change. As the current survey reveals, few now believe he has actually accomplished these things.

For instance, looking at the countries surveyed in both 2009 and 2012, a median of 56% in 2009 expected Obama to take significant steps to deal with climate change. Today, a median of just 22% think he has actually done this.

China’s Growing Economic Might

China’s image has slipped in several countries over the last year. The percentage of Japanese with a favorable opinion of China plummeted from 34% to 15%. In France, China’s favorability ratings dropped from 51% to 40%, and in Britain from 59% to 49%. And since last year, Americans have become less disposed to rate China positively (51% in 2011, 40% now).

However, perceptions of China’s economic power continue to grow. This is especially true in Europe, but the belief that China is the world’s top economy has become more common in the last year in other parts of the world as well, including Brazil, Japan, Turkey and Lebanon.

Views about the economic balance of power have shifted dramatically over time among the 14 countries surveyed each year from 2008 to 2012. In 2008, before the onset of the global financial crisis, a median of 45% named the U.S. as the world’s leading economic power, while just 22% said China. Today, only 36% say the U.S., while 42% believe China is in the top position.

Also of Note

• Global publics are much less interested in the 2012 U.S. presidential election than they were in the 2008 contest. For example, four years ago 56% of Germans were closely following the race, compared with just 36% now.
• Much like President Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton receives largely positive marks in Western Europe, but is unpopular in the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel receives mostly favorable ratings in Europe – with the clear exception of Greece, where only 7% express confidence in her.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin is rated negatively in most of the countries surveyed, and Russia’s overall image has declined since last year in Western Europe and the U.S.

See full article at: http://hir.harvard.edu/rethinking-finance/positive-aspects-of-us-image

Globalization continues to be a divisive subject among political activists, academics, business leaders, and policymakers. Some look at the rapid economic and political changes taking place around the world and see injustice. Others observe these same changes and see progress. On both sides of the debate, however, much of the discussion takes place among elites. What do average citizens around the world think about the powerful global forces transforming their societies? Survey research suggests that most people embrace the idea of a globalized world, albeit cautiously.

The main economic premises of globalization are generally accepted in regions throughout the world. People tend to believe their countries will benefit from trade, free enterprise, and investment by foreign companies. These views are especially common in many of the world’s poorest countries, including nations in sub-Saharan Africa. However, enthusiasm for economic globalization has waned considerably over the last few years in many wealthy nations, especially in Western Europe and the United States.

In nations both rich and poor, however, people worry about globalization’s downsides. Many are concerned about the disadvantaged in society who are left behind by the economic growth globalization can bring. Increasingly, they are alarmed by the negative effects of growth on the environment. Nearly everywhere, people worry about the potential loss of their own traditions and cultures in an interconnected world. Many are also troubled by the growing flow of immigrants across national borders.

So global publics do not fit neatly into either anti- or pro-globalization boxes. They largely reject the critiques of the strident anti-globalization protestors who have garnered considerable international media attention in recent years with their colorful-and sometimes violent-protests at international conclaves in Seattle, Prague, Davos, and elsewhere. At the same time, average citizens are more apprehensive about globalization than are the business and political elites who are often its greatest champions.

Support for Economic Globalization

In countries throughout the world, there is broad support for key economic features of globalization. The 47-country 2007 Pew Global Attitudes survey found strong support for international trade, multinational corporations, and free markets. However, the survey, conducted among representative national samples in 39 countries and disproportionately urban samples in 8 countries, also found important differences across various countries and regions. Perhaps the most notable among these are the increasing signs of economic anxiety among the wealthy nations of the West.

International trade is at the heart of globalization. The tremendous expansion of global trade over the last few decades has driven economic growth in many developing countries, while providing more diverse and less expensive products to consumers in the developed world. At the same time, it has created dramatic upheaval, as workers in poor countries have moved to cities in search of new jobs, while some in wealthier nations have lost jobs that have moved overseas. The 2007 Pew Global poll shows that, all things considered, people consistently endorse international trade. Sizeable majorities in all 47 countries said growing trade ties between countries are having a positive impact on their country. In 9 countries, at least 90 percent of those surveyed took this position. Favorable views are especially common in sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s poorest region. In all 10 African countries included in the survey, over 80 percent said trade was having a positive impact.

Large majorities also back trade in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, but the trend in these developed nations is clearly headed in a negative direction. For example, both Italy and France have seen double digit declines in support for trade since 2002. However, the ebbing of enthusiasm has been particularly dramatic in the United States, home to the world’s largest economy.

American opinions on trade stand out in two ways. First, among the 47 countries included on the survey, the percentage of people saying trade is a good thing was lowest in the United States. Second, among the 35 countries where trend data from 2002 is available, the largest decline in support for trade took place in the United States. In 2002, 78 percent of Americans said trade was good for their country; 5 years later, this number had fallen to 59 percent. The drop has been especially steep among Democrats, sliding from 77 percent to 53 percent.

In many ways, the pattern of public opinion on trade is reflected in public attitudes toward one of the key players in the global economy: multinational corporations. The 2007 Pew poll asked respondents whether they believe foreign companies are having a good or bad impact on their country, and in 41 of the 46 countries where this question was asked, majorities or pluralities said they are having a positive effect. However, since 2002, multinationals have become significantly less popular in the West, especially in Italy, Britain, and Germany.

As is the case with trade, foreign companies enjoy their greatest support in some of the world’s poorest nations. Ghanaians, Senegalese, Nigerians, and others from Africa are particularly likely to welcome multinationals. They are also popular among poorer nations in Asia and the Middle East, as well as in middle income countries such as Malaysia, Brazil, and Chile. There are, however, some low and middle income countries with more lukewarm views. For example, only 39 percent of Argentines said foreign companies are having a positive impact, though this is actually a 14 percentage point increase from the 2002 Pew survey, which was conducted just months after the country’s 2001 economic collapse.

Finally, the capitalist approach to economics also receives widespread support: in 39 of 47 countries, majorities agree that most people are better off under a free market system, even though some may be rich and others poor. Moreover, support for free markets is on the rise: in 17 of the 35 countries where trends are available, free markets were more popular in 2007 than in 2002. They were less popular in only five countries, and public opinion remained for the most part unchanged in 13 nations.

Support for free markets jumped significantly in several countries that have enjoyed strong growth in recent years, such as India (62 percent in 2002, 76 percent in 2007) and Poland (44 percent in 2002, 68 percent in 2007). Despite considerable discussion over the last few years about the rise of leftism and populism in Latin America, the Pew poll found that support for free markets had also increased since 2002 in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru. In Venezuela, home to controversial populist leader Hugo Chavez, 72 percent said people are generally better off under free markets, the highest percentage in the region. Even among supporters of Chavez, 68 percent endorsed free markets.

Inequality, the Environment, Loss of Tradition

While publics around the world generally approve of the key economic features of globalization, they also have important reservations about its downsides. For instance, even though they believe global trade and free markets can lead to economic growth, they realize this growth will not benefit everyone equally. As the 2007 Pew poll revealed, in many countries, there is a strong and growing concern about the gap between rich and poor. In countries as disparate as South Korea, Kenya, Indonesia, and Chile, large majorities named the growing gap between rich and poor as one of the top two dangers facing the world. In China, which has enjoyed remarkable economic growth in recent years, the divide between the rich and the poor was rated as one of the top two dangers by 51 percent.

The survey also revealed an overwhelming consensus that the state should be responsible for taking care of those left behind by globalization. In all 47 countries, majorities agreed that government should take care of the poorest in society who cannot help themselves, and in 30 countries, majorities say they completely agreed with this position. Although free markets are broadly embraced, few want a totally laissez-faire approach; instead, there is widespread agreement that government has a role to play.

While there are concerns that the growth associated with globalization is leaving some people behind, there are also worries about the damage growth is doing to the environment. Pew’s 2007 poll found a strong upsurge in environmental concerns: in Latin America, Europe, and Asia the number of people rating environmental problems as one of the top two dangers facing the world increased significantly. Even in the United States, where these issues tend to be less of a priority than in other economically advanced nations, concern for the environment has risen steeply. There was widespread concern over global warming, especially in Latin America, where large majorities consistently rated it a very serious problem, including 88 percent in Brazil, 78 percent in Venezuela, 75 percent in Chile, and 69 percent in Argentina. Europeans also expressed high levels of concern for the environment, particularly in Spain (70 percent) and France (68 percent).

Furthermore, people generally say they are willing to sacrifice economic growth to secure a clean environment. In 46 of the 47 countries surveyed by Pew in 2007, majorities agreed with the statement “Protecting the environment should be given priority, even if it causes slower economic growth and some loss of jobs.” In rich and poor nations alike, there is a consensus that damaging the environment is too high a price to pay for economic expansion.

People also worry that rapid changes stemming from globalization are decimating their local and national cultures. In 46 of 47 countries surveyed in 2007, majorities said their traditional way of life is being lost. At least half of that same number of countries want to have their traditional way of life protected against increasing foreign influence. These concerns are found in both economically advanced and developing countries. The lone exception to this robust pattern is Sweden: only 49 percent of Swedes said their traditions are being lost, and only 29 percent wanted to take steps to protect their traditional way of life.

The Anti-Globalization-Anti-Americanism Nexus

It is worth noting that each of these concerns-the rich/poor divide, the environment, the loss of tradition-is in some way linked to perceptions of the country whose economy and culture have the greatest influence on globalization: the United States. What people do not like about globalization they often blame on America. For instance, Pew polling has found that people tend to place at least some of the blame for growing inequality on the United States. In 32 of the 47 countries surveyed, at least 50 percent of respondents believed US policies contribute to the gap between rich and poor countries. At least 7 in 10 said this in the Palestinian territories (73 percent), France (73 percent), Germany (72 percent), Spain (72 percent), Kuwait (72 percent), Argentina (71 percent), and South Korea (70 percent). Even in the United States, nearly 4 in 10 (38 percent) said their country adds to global inequality.

When Pew asked respondents around the world which country is most responsible for pollution and environmental problems, they overwhelmingly named the United States. And US citizens did not necessarily disagree with this assessment: 33 percent named the United States, while China was a distant second at 22 percent.

When it comes to culture, the story is similar. Even in many places where American movies, television, and music are quite popular, people essentially say they have too much America in their lives and they worry about losing their own cultures and traditions to Americanization. In 37 of 46 countries (excluding the United States) at least half of those surveyed said the spread of American ideas and customs is having a negative impact on their own societies. Moreover, the number of people who take this view was up significantly from 2002 in several countries that are usually considered relatively “pro-American,” such as Britain and Bulgaria. On this issue, however, Americans themselves saw things quite differently than the rest of the world: two-thirds believed the spreading of American ideas and customs around the world is a good thing.

Globalization is not the main source of the growing anti-Americanism witnessed in the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere over the last few years. Opposition to US foreign policy is much more important in this regard. The war in Iraq, the US-led war on terror, perceptions that the United States acts unilaterally in foreign affairs-all of these issues are more central to US’ declining image. However, anxieties about globalization, and the fact that people blame the world’s sole superpower for the downsides of globalization, also contribute to US’ reputation problems.

Immigration Anxieties

In addition to concerns about money, jobs, ideas, and customs moving across borders, there is also considerable anxiety in many nations about the cross-border flow of people. Of course, globalization is not the only cause of immigration. For example, the war in Iraq has led many Iraqis to leave their country in search of a more secure environment, which has in turn has led to increased concerns about immigration in neighboring countries like Jordan. In 2002, 48 percent of Jordanians supported tighter controls on immigration; by 2007, 70 percent wanted tighter restrictions.

Still, the movement of people across international borders in search of new and better opportunities in the global economy is part of the globalization story. When Pew asked respondents about the main reason people leave their country to live elsewhere, majorities or pluralities in 35 of the 36 countries where the question was asked cited jobs. This was true both in relatively poor and relatively wealthy countries. For example, while 98 percent of Senegalese said people leave their country for financial reasons, 96 percent said this in Poland and 94 percent in Slovakia, both of which are comparatively wealthy. Kuwait was the only place in which a plurality mentioned another reason: 27 percent of Kuwaitis said people leave to pursue education, while 24 percent named jobs.

The drive to cross national borders in pursuit of good jobs may be a key feature of globalization, but it generates apprehension almost everywhere. Jordanians are not alone in wanting more restrictions on immigration: majorities in 44 of 47 countries shared their sentiments. And in most countries surveyed, majorities believed that overall, immigrants are having a bad impact on their country.

Italy is a good example of a nation where concerns about both economic globalization and immigration are on the rise. Frustrated with anemic economic growth in recent years, Italians stand apart from the other Western European nations surveyed by Pew. They were the least enthusiastic about trade and foreign companies; they were among the least satisfied with their lives and the direction of their country; and they were the least optimistic about the future. The intensity of Italian concerns about immigration also sets them apart. Like much of Western Europe, over the last couple of decades Italy has wrestled with how to successfully integrate and assimilate its growing Muslim minority. More recently, an influx of Romanian immigrants-especially Roma, or gypsies from Romania-has generated renewed the controversies surrounding this issue. Nearly 3 in 4 Italians (73 percent) said immigrants are having a bad impact on their country, while nearly 9 in 10 (87 percent) said there should be tighter restrictions on immigration. And 64 percent of Italians rated immigration a very big problem for their country, which is highest not only among Western European countries, but among all 47 nations included in the survey.

Can Globalization Deliver?

The Italians are clearly outliers, but are they laggards who are simply behind the curve in embracing globalization, or are they harbingers of a coming backlash against globalization? The answer will most likely depend on how well globalization delivers for individuals and for countries. After all, it is in economically stagnant Western countries that we see the most trepidation about globalization. If current economic troubles continue, and if they spread to the middle income countries that have enjoyed impressive economic growth this decade, the fears and frustrations we see in Italy may become more commonplace.

A 47-nation survey finds global public opinion increasingly wary of the world’s dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders. Anti-Americanism is extensive, as it has been for the past five years. At the same time, the image of China has slipped significantly among the publics of other major nations. Opinion about Russia is mixed, but confidence in its president, Vladimir Putin, has declined sharply. In fact, the Russian leader’s negatives have soared to the point that they mirror the nearly worldwide lack of confidence in George W. Bush.

Global distrust of American leadership is reflected in increasing disapproval of the cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy. Not only is there worldwide support for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but there also is considerable opposition to U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan. Western European publics are at best divided about keeping troops there. In nearly every predominantly Muslim country, overwhelming majorities want U.S. and NATO troops withdrawn from Afghanistan as soon as possible. In addition, global support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism ebbs ever lower. And the United States is the nation blamed most often for hurting the world’s environment, at a time of rising global concern about environmental issues.

At the same time, China’s expanding economic and military power is triggering considerable anxiety. Large majorities in many countries think that China’s growing military might is a bad thing, and the publics of many advanced nations are increasingly concerned about the impact of China’s economic power on their own countries.

Russia and its president also are unpopular in many countries of the world. But criticisms of that nation and its leader are sharpest in Western Europe where many citizens worry about overdependence on the Russian energy supply. For instance, despite sharp declines in favorable views of the U.S. in France and Germany since 2002, Russia’s image in those countries is no better.

There is little evidence that discontent with the major nations of the world and their leaders is resulting in greater confidence in those who have challenged the global status quo. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez inspires little public confidence, even in Latin America, and huge majorities in most countries also say they have little or no confidence in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to do the right thing regarding world affairs. There also is broad opposition to Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. Citizens all around the world voice substantial concern about the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran. This includes the Muslim publics of neighboring nations such as Kuwait and Turkey.

The Pew survey finds a general increase in the percentage of people citing pollution and environmental problems as a top global threat. Worries have risen sharply in Latin America and Europe, as well as in Japan and India. Many people blame the United States — and to a lesser extent China — for these problems and look to Washington to do something about them.

As was the case in Pew’s first major global survey in 2002, global concerns vary significantly by region of the world. The spread of nuclear weapons is a growing worry in the Middle East — it is named as a top global danger in that region, along with religious and ethnic hatreds.

AIDS and other infectious diseases continue to be viewed as the dominant threat in Africa and a major concern in Latin America. Yet the polling also finds that African publics are increasingly concerned about the growing gap between rich and poor. In addition, the belief that economic inequality represents a major global danger has become much more prevalent in South Korea and Russia.

In the face of strong criticisms of its foreign policy, the U.S. is cited in many countries about as often as the U.N. as the entity that should be responsible for dealing with the problems that confront the world. This is particularly the case among people who are most concerned about the spread of nuclear weapons. But when it comes to AIDS and the gap between rich and poor, many who see these as important threats look to their own countries to provide solutions.

Most people in the survey, conducted in 46 countries and the Palestinian territories, have a favorable view of the United Nations. Negative views of the U.N. are most prevalent in the Middle East. Large majorities in both the Palestinian territories (69%) and Israel (58%) express unfavorable opinions of the world body. U.S. opinion of the U.N. remains mixed — 48% have a favorable view, 39% unfavorable. For the most part, global opinion of the European Union parallels opinion of the U.N.; in the U.S. roughly twice as many have a positive view of the EU than a negative one (47% vs. 22%), although many Americans offer no opinion (30%).

Anti-Americanism: Deeper But Not Wider

In the current poll, majorities in 25 of the 47 countries surveyed express positive views of the U.S. Since 2002, however, the image of the United States has declined in most parts of the world. Favorable ratings of America are lower in 26 of 33 countries for which trends are available.

The U.S. image remains abysmal in most Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia, and continues to decline among the publics of many of America’s oldest allies. Favorable views of the U.S. are in single digits in Turkey (9%) and have declined to 15% in Pakistan. Currently, just 30% of Germans have a positive view of the U.S. — down from 42% as recently as two years ago — and favorable ratings inch ever lower in Great Britain and Canada.

For all of the bad news, however, the global survey of 47 nations, conducted throughout the world, reveals a more complex picture of opinions of the United States.

First, the U.S. image remains positive in Africa. In several African countries, such as Ethiopia and Kenya, it is overwhelmingly positive. In addition, majorities in two of America’s most important Asian trading partners — India and Japan — continue to express favorable opinions of the United States. And the U.S. image has improved dramatically in South Korea since 2003 (from 46% to 58% favorable).

While opinion of the U.S. has slipped in Latin America over the past five years, majorities in such countries as Mexico, Peru and even Venezuela still say they have a positive opinion of their large neighbor to the north. Similarly, “new Europe” likes America better than “old Europe,” although the U.S. image is not nearly as strong in Eastern Europe as it was five years ago.

And while negative views of the U.S. continue to prevail in much of the Muslim world, anger is not as universal today as it was in the spring of 2003 after the start of the war in Iraq. At that time, just 1% of Jordanians — and less than 1% in the Palestinian territories — gave a favorable rating to the United States, compared with 20% and 13%, respectively, today. And while still far from positive, America’s image has recovered substantially in Lebanon as well.

However, opinions of the American people have declined over the past five years in 23 of 33 countries where trends are available. In Indonesia and Turkey, where favorable views of the U.S. have declined markedly over the past five years, opinions of Americans have fallen sharply as well. In Indonesia, positive opinions of Americans have fallen from 65% in 2002 to 42%; in Turkey, favorable opinions have declined 19 points.

While opinions of Americans have fallen in most Western European countries, they remain generally positive. In every Western European country surveyed, far more people express positive opinions of Americans than they do of the U.S.; in Germany, for instance, 63% say they have a positive opinion of Americans compared with just 30% who rate the U.S. positively.

In fact, in many countries, the American people get better ratings than does the U.S. generally. Latin America is a consistent exception to this rule. In this region, Americans get about the same ratings as their country; either both are mostly favorable, as in Venezuela and Peru, or both are quite low, as in Argentina.

Opinions that Influence America’s Image

This is by far the largest global survey Pew has conducted since 2002. As such, it provides a broad perspective on anti-Americanism, documenting the nature and breadth of negative perceptions of the U.S.

Among key U.S. allies in Western Europe, the view that the U.S. acts unilaterally is an opinion that has tracked closely with America’s overall image over the past five years. Ironically, the belief that the United States does not take into account the interests of other countries in formulating its foreign policy is extensive among the publics of several close U.S. allies. No fewer than 89% of the French, 83% of Canadians and 74% of the British express this opinion.

U.S. policies also are widely viewed as increasing the gap between rich nations and poor nations. This is even the case in several countries where the U.S. is generally well regarded. In addition, this is one of the few criticisms of the U.S. that is widely shared around the world and with which a plurality of Americans (38%) agree.

Critiques of the U.S. are not confined to its policies, however. In much of the world there is broad and deepening dislike of American values and a global backlash against the spread of American ideas and customs. Majorities or pluralities in most countries surveyed say they dislike American ideas about democracy — and this sentiment has increased in most regions since 2002. However, sizable majorities in most African nations — as well as in Israel, South Korea and Japan — continue to express positive views of the U.S. approach to democracy. In addition, a small plurality in China says they like rather than dislike American ideas about democracy (48% to 36%).

Public rejection of American democracy in most countries may in part reflect opinions about the way in which the United States has implemented its pro-democracy agenda, as well as America’s democratic values. Majorities in 43 of 47 countries surveyed — including 63% in the United States — say that the U.S. promotes democracy mostly where it serves its interests, rather than promoting it wherever it can.

The poll also finds negative attitudes toward American ways of doing business. Dislike of the U.S. approach has deepened. However, Muslim countries in the Middle East are a notable exception, despite their generally poor opinion of the U.S. As many as 71% of Kuwaitis, 63% of Lebanese, and even 40% of Palestinians say they like the American way of doing business. But the greatest admirers of the American approach to business continue to be in Africa, where huge majorities in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria endorse it.

While many around the world fault American ideals, there is still considerable admiration for U.S. technology and a strong appetite for its cultural exports. In 42 of 46 foreign countries surveyed, majorities say they admire U.S. technological and scientific advances. In Russia, however, a majority (53%) says nyet to American scientific achievements. Similarly, in most parts of the world, majorities report liking American music, movies and television. However, there is greater dissent with regard to these pop culture exports; majorities in several predominantly Muslim countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt, say they dislike American music, movies and television. Indians and Russians also express negative views of U.S. cultural exports.

Despite near universal admiration for U.S. technology and a strong appetite for its cultural exports in most parts of the world, large proportions in most countries think it is bad that American ideas and customs are spreading to their countries. The percentage expressing disapproval has increased in many countries since 2002 — including Great Britain (by 17 percentage points), Germany (14 points) and Canada (13 points). Israel, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Nigeria are the only countries (aside from the U.S.) in which majorities say they like the spread of American customs.

As noted, however, the U.S. is not alone in drawing the increasing ire of people in other countries. The poll also finds flagging views of China, an emerging superpower. Favorable views of China have fallen in Western Europe — particularly in Spain, Germany and France. And while China’s image is generally positive in Asia, it has grown somewhat more negative in India and much more negative in Japan, where unfavorable opinions of China now outnumber positive ones by more than two-to-one (67%-29%).

Opinion of China’s growing economic power is decidedly negative in Western Europe, where nearly two- thirds of Italians and the French believe this trend is bad for their country. Only in Sweden is there a positive view of this development. The polling also finds concern about China’s economic clout in Mexico, Czech Republic, South Korea and India. In sharp contrast, the publics of the African nations surveyed give thumbs up to China’s economic power.

Majorities or pluralities in the 10 African countries surveyed believe that China has at least a fair amount of influence on their countries. Most people in the African countries surveyed also say that the U.S. has considerable influence; however, U.S. influence is rivaled or exceeded by China’s in a number of African countries, including Mali and Ivory Coast.

Similarly, many people in Latin America believe that China is having an important influence on their countries. While China’s perceived impact in this region is not as great as that of the U.S., majorities in Venezuela and Chile, and half of Mexicans, say China’s influence is growing. In general, Africans are more positive than Latin Americans about the growing influence of both China and the U.S. on their countries. But in both regions, somewhat greater percentages say China’s influence is a good thing than say that about U.S. influence.

Additional Findings

• Many of the publics of NATO countries with significant numbers of troops in Afghanistan are divided over whether U.S. and NATO forces should be brought home immediately, or should remain until the country is stabilized. In the U.S., 50% favor keeping U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, while 42% say they should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
• The Turkish public, which has soured on the U.S., also has become more critical of the European Union. Just 27% of Turks have a favorable opinion of the European Union, down from 58% in 2004.
• Former Soviet bloc nations are deeply divided in their views of Russia. Fully 81% in Ukraine have a positive opinion of Russia, but solid majorities in both Poland and the Czech Republic express negative views.
• America’s image in Venezuela has eroded considerably. Favorable opinions have declined by nearly 30 percentage points since 2002, though a majority (56%) still has a positive impression of the U.S.
• People in Japan and Israel are deeply concerned over the spread of nuclear weapons. Roughly two-thirds in both countries cite nuclear proliferation as top global threat — more than any other nation surveyed.
• Muslim publics in the Middle East express fairly negative views of Iran, with the exception of the Palestinians. But in several Muslim countries outside of the Middle East, majorities have favorable opinions of Iran, including Bangladesh (77% favorable) and Pakistan (68%).
• Russian President Putin inspires much more confidence from his people than does President Bush. More than eight-in-ten Russians (84%) say they have a lot or some confidence in Putin’s approach to world affairs; just 45% of Americans say the same abut Bush.

In the past year alone, positive views of the U.S. have declined in Pakistan, China, Egypt, and Germany. However, opinions of the United States vary widely, and there continue to be regions where views of America are still decidedly positive.

U.S. Remains Popular in Africa

Notably, the U.S. continues to be extremely popular throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Over three-quarters of those surveyed in Ivory Coast, Kenya, Ghana, Mali, and Ethiopia say they have a very or somewhat favorable impression of the U.S. Tanzania is the only African country included in the study in which fewer than half (46%) have a positive opinion of the United States.

Nearly nine-in-ten in Ivory Coast (88%) and Kenya (87%) express positive opinions of the U.S. – the highest among 47 countries surveyed, including the U.S. itself (80%). Favorable ratings for the U.S. in Kenya have risen seven points since 2002, while U.S. ratings in Ivory Coast are about the same as they were five years ago (85%). Still, even in Africa, America’s image has suffered in a few nations over the past five years, dropping 10 points in Uganda, nine points in South Africa, and seven points in Tanzania.

In Africa’s two most populous countries, Nigeria and Ethiopia, attitudes toward the U.S. are sharply divided along religious lines, with Christians much more likely than Muslims to take a positive view. In Ethiopia, Christians give the U.S. a nearly unanimous positive rating (93% favorable), while Muslims are evenly divided (48% favorable, 49% unfavorable). The pattern in Nigeria is almost identical – 94% of Nigeria’s Christians express a positive opinion of the United States, while Muslims are divided (49% favorable, 47% unfavorable).

However, divisions along religious lines are less pronounced in Tanzania, another African country with a sizable population of both Christians and Muslims. Tanzanian Christians (50%) are only slightly more likely than Muslims (42%) to have a favorable opinion of the U.S.

Less Support for the U.S. in Latin America

The image of the United States has eroded since 2002 in all six Latin American countries for which trends are available. The decline has been especially steep in Venezuela (26 points), Argentina (18 points), and Bolivia (15 points). Nonetheless, majorities in four of the seven Latin American nations included in the survey – including Venezuela (56%) – have a positive opinion of the U.S.

Both Brazilians (44% favorable, 51% unfavorable) and Bolivians (42% favorable, 52% unfavorable) are somewhat more likely to have a negative opinion of the U.S. than a positive one. Five years ago, majorities in both nations felt favorably toward the U.S. Meanwhile, negative views of the U.S. in Argentina, which were clearly evident five years ago, have only intensified. Indeed, the balance of opinion toward the U.S. among Argentines (16% favorable, 72% unfavorable) is worse than in any country surveyed outside the Middle East.

Still Unpopular in the Middle East

The U.S. continues to be widely unpopular in the Middle East. More than three-in-four Palestinians, Turks, Egyptians, and Jordanians express unfavorable opinions of the U.S. In fact, the United States receives a lower favorable rating (9%) in Turkey – a NATO ally – than in any country surveyed. This is down from a 30% favorable rating in 2002, and down even more dramatically from a 1999/2000 State Department poll that found a slim majority of Turks (52%) with a positive view of the U.S.

America’s image has also suffered in Kuwait, although it is still less negative there than in some neighboring countries. In 2003 – when U.S. favorability dropped in countries throughout the Middle East and elsewhere – Kuwaitis maintained a strongly positive view of the U.S., with 63% holding a favorable opinion. Today, however, Kuwaitis are evenly divided: 46% express a favorable view of the U.S. and 46% an unfavorable one.

One country in the region where attitudes toward the U.S. have actually improved is Lebanon. Five years ago, 36% of Lebanese had a positive view of the U.S., and this number fell to 27% in 2003. Since then it has risen to 42% in 2005, and to 47% this year. However, opinions vary considerably among Lebanon’s diverse religious communities.

Christians tend to be strongly pro-American (82% favorable), and most of the improvement in America’s image over the last few years has taken place in the Christian community (44% favorable in 2002, 48% in 2003, 72% in 2005, and 82% this year). Meanwhile, there are sharp differences within the Muslim community, which is split between Shia and Sunni sects. Lebanese Shia hold strongly negative views of the U.S., with nine-in-ten (92%) saying they have an unfavorable opinion. Lebanese Sunnis, on the other hand, are divided, with 52% voicing a positive view of the U.S. and 47% giving a negative assessment. Sunnis in Lebanon are less likely to hold negative views of the U.S. than are Sunnis in Jordan and Egypt.

America’s closest ally in the region, Israel, continues to have overwhelmingly favorable views of the U.S. Nearly eight-in-ten Israelis (78%) give the U.S. a positive rating, which is the same percentage expressing a positive view in 2003.

U.S. Image Declines in the West

Public opinion about the U.S. is far more negative today in Western Europe and Canada than it was at the beginning of this decade. Data from U.S. State Department surveys show that in 1999/2000 solid majorities in Canada, Britain, France, and Germany had a favorable view of the U.S., along with 50% in Spain. However, in 2003 and 2004, following the start of the Iraq war, views turned more negative. This year America’s image shows further signs of erosion, reaching new lows in Great Britain (51%) and Germany (30%). Favorable views of the U.S. are up this year in Spain, although Spanish opinion remains quite negative; only 34% have a favorable view of the U.S., compared with 60% who have an unfavorable opinion.

Less Enthusiasm for the U.S. in “New Europe”

America’s image also has slipped in Eastern Europe, and to some extent attitudes toward the U.S. in New Europe are beginning to resemble those found in Old Europe. Five years ago, strong majorities in Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia gave the U.S. favorable marks, but views have grown more negative in these four countries, all of which have joined the EU in the last five years.

Favorable views of the U.S. also are down in Russia and Ukraine. In 2002, six-in-ten Russians (61%) had a positive opinion of the U.S., compared with only 41% today. In Ukraine, a slender majority (54%) retains a positive view of the U.S., but this is down considerably from 2002, when fully eight-in-ten Ukrainians had a favorable impression.

Asia: U.S. Image Up in South Korea

In just the last year, attitudes towards the U.S. have grown more negative in two large and strategically important Asian nations, China and Pakistan. In 2006, the Chinese were slightly more likely to have a favorable opinion of the U.S. (47%) than an unfavorable opinion (43%). This year the balance has shifted; just 34% of Chinese have a positive view of the U.S., while 57% give it a negative rating.

Public sentiment toward the U.S. has long been quite negative in Pakistan, though it had edged upward from a low of 10% favorable in 2002 to 27% a year ago. But in the current survey, just 15% of Pakistanis express a favorable opinion of the U.S., while roughly two-thirds (68%) express an unfavorable opinion.

In addition to Pakistan, the U.S. is unpopular in two other largely Muslim nations in Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia. Views of the United States have fluctuated in Indonesia in recent years: Positive opinions fell dramatically between 2002 and 2003 (from 61% to 15%), before recovering to 38% in 2005 after the U.S. mounted a large-scale assistance effort for Indonesia following its December 2004 tsunami. Today, U.S. favorability in Indonesia stands at 29%, roughly double its 2003 low, but far below its pre-Iraq war level.

In neighboring Malaysia, only 27% have a favorable view of the U.S.; opinions differ widely among people of different faiths in this religiously diverse society. Among Malaysia’s Buddhists, 53% have a favorable opinion of the United States, compared with just 10% among the country’s Muslims. (Malaysia also has sizable minorities of Hindus and Christians but there are too few in our sample to analyze separately.) In predominantly Muslim Bangladesh, however, the U.S. receives relatively positive reviews – 53% report a favorable opinion.

The U.S. remains generally popular in India, Japan, and South Korea. In each of these countries roughly six-in-ten people have a favorable opinion of America. And in South Korea, U.S. favorability has risen 12 percentage points since a low point in 2003, when only 46% gave favorable marks. Opinions are similarly positive among both South Korean Christians (62%) and Buddhists (59%).

Views in Muslim World Not Uniform

Examining the views of Muslim respondents from different regions highlights the diversity of opinion regarding the U.S. in the Muslim world. Opinions of the U.S. remain overwhelming negative among Middle Eastern and Asian Muslims, although as noted above, there are exceptions in Bangladesh and Kuwait, and among Sunni Muslims in Lebanon.

However, African Muslims tend to express more positive views, particularly in Mali and Senegal. In Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, Muslims are roughly divided between those with a favorable and an unfavorable view of the U.S.

In much of the Muslim world and elsewhere, positive attitudes toward the U.S. declined between 2002 and 2003, coinciding with the buildup to and beginning of the Iraq war. While America’s image has not returned to pre-war levels in most countries where trends are available, it has actually risen among Muslims in several countries since its 2003 nadir – rising 19 percentage points in Jordan, 18 points in Lebanon, 13 points in the Palestinian territories, and 11 points in Nigeria.

Familiarity Breeds Favorability

While most respondents to the survey have never traveled to the U.S., in some countries a significant number of people have visited the country, including 50% of the British, 38% of Israelis, 36% of Swedes, 32% of the Japanese, and 23% of Germans, as well as a large portion of respondents from neighboring Canada (90%) and a substantial number from Mexico (25%). Consistently, those individuals who have traveled to the U.S. have more favorable views of the country than those who have not. For example, Swedes who have never visited the U.S. tend to view the country negatively (39% favorable, 54% unfavorable), while those who have traveled to the U.S. see it more positively (57% favorable, 40% unfavorable).

The image of America also tends to be more positive among those who have friends or relatives in the U.S. whom they regularly call, write to, or visit. In the 32 countries where there are a sufficient number of cases to analyze, people with friends or relatives in the U.S. are generally more likely to have a favorable opinion of the country than those who do not have personal connections in the U.S. For instance, in Bolivia positive ratings of America are more common among those who have friends or relatives in the U.S. (50% favorable, 41% unfavorable) than among those with no such personal connections (38% favorable, 55% unfavorable).

Americans More Popular Than Their Country

Overall, the image of the American people has declined since 2002, and the drop has been especially steep in some countries, notably the predominantly Muslim nations of Indonesia (down from 65% in 2002 to 42% in 2007), Jordan (54% in 2002; 36% now), and Turkey (32% in 2002; 13% now). Consistent with their low rating for the U.S. as a country, the Turks are less likely than any other public included in the survey to give Americans a positive assessment.

Nonetheless, as previous Pew surveys have shown, attitudes toward Americans are often more positive than attitudes toward their country. This distinction is particularly evident in Western nations. For example, while only 30% of Germans have a positive view of the U.S., 63% have a favorable opinion of Americans. Similarly, only 46% of Swedes give a positive rating to the U.S. as a country, but 73% have a favorable impression of the American people. And while only slim majorities in Canada and Great Britain express a favorable opinion of the U.S., views of Americans are overwhelmingly positive.

This pattern also is evident in some Middle Eastern countries. The Lebanese are significantly more likely to express a favorable view of Americans (69%) than of the U.S. (47%), as are Kuwaitis (Americans – 62% favorable; U.S. – 46% favorable), and Jordanians (Americans – 36% favorable; U.S. – 20% favorable).

In both Latin America and Africa, however, there is generally no gap between how America and its people are viewed. For example, in Mexico about the same number rate the U.S. (56%) and Americans (52%) favorably, and the same is true in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Peru. Venezuelans give Americans higher ratings (64% favorable) than they give the U.S. (56% favorable), although both the people and the country are relatively popular. In Argentina, there is a 10-point gap between ratings of Americans (26% favorable) and of the U.S. (16% favorable).

Perceptions of Unilateralism

The current survey reveals extensive criticism of American foreign policy, including the widespread belief that the U.S. acts unilaterally in the international arena. Majorities in 30 of 46 nations say that when making foreign policy decisions the U.S. does not take into account the interests of countries like theirs.

The impression that the U.S. acts without considering the views of others is especially prevalent in Europe. Solid majorities in every Western and Eastern European country surveyed say that the U.S. gives little or no consideration to the interests of countries like theirs when making foreign policy decisions. In France and Sweden, roughly nine-in-ten express this opinion – more than in any other surveyed country (89% France, 90% Sweden).

The French have long been skeptical about America’s willingness to consider the interests of other nations. Adherence to this view has risen sharply in both Great Britain and Germany. Since 2002, the share of the British public saying the U.S. acts unilaterally has increased from 52% to 74%, and in Germany from 44% to 71%.

Outside of Israel, where just 24% suggest the U.S. acts unilaterally, Middle Easterners overwhelmingly believe the U.S. ignores their interests. Even in Lebanon, where 47% view America favorably, roughly two-thirds (65%) say that the U.S. considers interests of the country not too much or not at all. And the numbers expressing this belief are considerably larger among other publics in the Middle East, including the Turks (75%) and the Palestinians (82%).

Meanwhile, in Kuwait, which was liberated by American forces in the first Iraq war in 1991, 64% now say the U.S. pays little or no attention to the interests of countries like theirs, compared with 35% in 2003.

The belief that American foreign policy follows a unilateralist course is common in much of Asia as well. Despite their positive overall assessments of the U.S., most Japanese and South Koreans do not believe American policymakers think about countries like theirs when setting the course for foreign policy.

By contrast, majorities in seven of the ten African nations surveyed believe U.S. foreign policy does take into account the interests of countries like theirs. Only in Ethiopia and Senegal do slim majorities believe the U.S. ignores countries like theirs when making policy. In Latin America, the picture is mixed, with Argentines overwhelmingly saying the U.S. ignores their interests, while almost two-thirds of Venezuelans say American foreign policy does incorporate their concerns.

Americans were asked whether their country takes other countries’ interests into account when making international policy decisions. A majority (59%) believes that U.S. foreign policy does take into account the interests of other nations, but this is down from 75% in 2002 and 67% as recently as two years ago. Republicans (74% great deal/fair amount) are much more likely than independents (58%) or Democrats (50%) to think U.S. policymakers incorporate the interests of other countries.

Negative Views of War on Terrorism

Over the last five years, Pew Global Attitudes surveys have tracked waning international support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism, and this year’s survey highlights the full extent of this decline. In 30 of 34 countries where trends are available (including the U.S.), support for America’s anti-terrorism efforts has dropped since our 2002 poll, which was conducted just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. The falloff has been especially steep in Europe, with decreases of at least 25 percentage points in Ukraine, France, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic. But support has also weakened in the Western Hemisphere, with sharp drops in Venezuela and Canada. Even in the U.S., the percent who favor the war on terrorism has fallen 19 points, from 89% to 70%.

Currently, support for the U.S.-led efforts to fight terrorism is at or above 50% in only 16 of 47 countries. And in several countries that have experienced terrorist attacks in recent years, such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Spain, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Turkey, majorities say they oppose America’s war on terrorism.

In some religiously diverse countries, opinions on this issue differ among religious communities. In Ethiopia, Christians (82% favor) are nearly four times as likely as Muslims (21%) to back American anti-terrorism efforts. The gap is less pronounced, but still substantial, in Tanzania, where 48% of Christians favor and 28% of Muslims oppose these efforts. In Lebanon, Shia Muslims almost unanimously oppose the American-led war on terror (91%), compared with a bare majority of Sunnis (53%). Lebanese Christians are evenly divided between those who favor (50%) the American anti-terrorism campaign and those who oppose it (48%).

U.S. Support for Israel

Throughout the Muslim countries of the Middle East, overwhelming majorities believe American policy in the region favors Israel too much, including more than eight-in-ten respondents in Jordan (91%), the Palestinian territories (90%), Lebanon (89%), Kuwait (86%), Egypt (86%), and Morocco (81%). This belief is widespread in other predominantly Muslim countries as well, such as Indonesia (69%), Bangladesh (55%), and Malaysia (55%). It is not, however, limited to Muslim countries, as illustrated by the solid majorities in France (62%) and Germany (57%) who say U.S. policies favor Israel too much.

Even in Israel, a slim 42% plurality says America is too supportive of their country, while 13% say the U.S. favors the Palestinians too much and 37% say U.S. policies are fair. About a third of Americans (34%) see U.S. policy in the region as fair, 27% say it favors Israel, and 8% say it favors the Palestinians. With few exceptions, only a handful of respondents in the 37 countries where this question was asked see American policy as overly supportive of the Palestinians (it was not asked in sub-Saharan Africa).

Many Want Forces Out of Iraq, Afghanistan

Opposition to American military operations in Iraq is widespread, with at least half of those surveyed in 43 of 47 countries saying the U.S. should remove its troops from Iraq as soon as possible. This sentiment is shared by most Americans – 56% say it is time for troops to leave Iraq. And despite concerns among some that the withdrawal of U.S. forces could lead to greater regional instability, majorities in three countries bordering Iraq – Turkey, Jordan, and Kuwait – say troops should be removed.

While U.S. and NATO-led efforts in Afghanistan have generally received more diplomatic support than have coalition efforts in Iraq, this survey finds a great deal of skepticism about military operations in Afghanistan as well. In 32 of 47 countries, majorities want troops out as soon as possible. Among the 12 NATO members included in the survey, however, opinion is more divided – majorities in seven of these countries say troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Slightly more than four-in-ten Americans (42%) want troops out of Afghanistan, while half (50%) believe they should stay. Opinions about Afghanistan and Iraq break sharply along partisan lines, with Republicans significantly more likely than Democrats to say troops should remain in both countries, with independents occupying a middle position.

Less Enthusiasm for American-Style Democracy

In nearly all countries where trends are available, people are less inclined to say they like American ideas about democracy than they were in 2002, and in many countries the declines are quite large, including a 27-point drop in Venezuela, a 25-point drop in Turkey, and a 23-point decline in Indonesia. One exception to the pattern is Jordan, where the number saying they like American ideas about democracy has risen from 29% in 2002 to 42% in the current survey.

Among Americans, enthusiasm for promoting democracy has waned; in 2002, 70% said they believed the U.S. should be promoting democracy around the world, compared with 60% today. Republicans (74%) are significantly more likely than independents (59%) or Democrats (54%) to say U.S. foreign policy should feature democracy promotion.

Much of the skepticism regarding American ideas about democracy may be tied to the perception that U.S. foreign policy is inconsistent in its democracy promotion efforts. Majorities or pluralities in nearly every country surveyed say the U.S. promotes democracy where it serves its interests, rather than wherever it can. In the U.S., 63% say their country promotes democracy mostly when it serves the national interest. There are substantial partisan differences, with 46% of Republicans saying such a policy is mostly pursued when it serves the country’s interests, compared with 70% of Democrats.

U.S. Seen as Contributing to Global Inequality

Another major source of discontent with the U.S. is the perception that American policies increase the gap between rich and poor countries. In 32 of 47 countries, at least 50% of respondents believe that the U.S. contributes to the rich-poor divide. In places as diverse as the Palestinian territories (73%), France (73%), Germany (72%), Spain (72%), Kuwait (72%), Argentina (71%), and South Korea (70%) at least seven-in-ten respondents agree with this assessment of U.S. policy. Even in the U.S., nearly four-in-ten (38%) think their country adds to global inequality. Kenya is the only country in which a majority (55%) says that U.S. policies lessen the gap between rich and poor countries.

Divided Over American Business

Opinions about American ways of doing business vary substantially among regions and sometimes within regions. American business practices are least popular in the advanced economies of Western Europe, where fewer than one-in-three respondents in all six nations say they like U.S.-style business. Meanwhile, American business receives its most favorable reviews in sub-Saharan Africa – more than seven-in-ten have a positive opinion of U.S. business practices in Kenya (79%), Ivory Coast (78%), Nigeria (78%), and Ghana (74%).

American business is also relatively popular in the Middle East, especially in Kuwait (71% like U.S. business practices), Israel (70%), and Lebanon (63%). Even among Jordanians (51%), Egyptians (48%), Moroccans (44%), and Palestinians (40%), favorable views of American business are far more common than positive views of the U.S. as a country or of the American people. In Turkey, however, the results once again highlight the extent of negative opinions about the U.S. among the Turkish public – only 6% say they like American ways of doing business, down 21 percentage points from 2002.

Assessments of the U.S. approach to business have also grown more negative in much of Latin America. Distaste for American-style business is up 20 percentage points in Venezuela since 2002, and 15 points in Mexico; it also has increased by 13 points in Argentina, where two-thirds of the public now says they do not care for American ideas about business. The only exception to this trend is Bolivia, where the number of people who dislike American ways of doing business has declined by a modest five points.

In the U.S., respondents were asked whether their country should be promoting American business practices around the world, and a majority (55%) says these approaches should be promoted, down somewhat from 63% five years ago and slightly less than the percentage (60%) who say the U.S. should be promoting democracy abroad.

High Regard for Technology, Pop Culture

While there are misgivings about U.S. policies in many countries, and reservations about American business practices in some, other aspects of America’s image still draw praise. For instance, American scientific and technological advances continue to be held in high esteem, even in many places where overall assessments of the U.S. are low. In Malaysia, for example, 83% admire U.S. science and technology; in Egypt, 69% do so; in Jordan, 68%; in the Palestinian territories, 67%; Germany, 65%; Morocco, 55%; and Argentina, 51%. In general, results for this question have changed little since 2002, although there have been significant changes in a few countries, especially Turkey (67% admire in 2002, 37% now) and Ukraine (69% admire in 2002, 46% now), where respect for U.S. scientific and technological advances has waned. As for Americans themselves, 88% are proud of their country’s technological and scientific advances.

In addition to America’s science and technology, its popular culture continues to receive favorable reviews from many parts of the globe. Majorities in most countries surveyed say they like American music, movies, and television. However, there are several notable exceptions: More than two-thirds of Bangladeshis (81%), Pakistanis (80%), Turks (68%), Palestinians (68%), and Indians (68%) say they do not like American music, movies, and television.

In some countries, different religious communities tend to have contrasting perspectives on American popular culture, and these differences often mirror broader divides in views of the U.S. In Lebanon, for example, Christians and Sunni Muslims overwhelmingly embrace American music, movies, and television, while the Shia community largely rejects these cultural exports. Among Ethiopians and Nigerians, Christians tend to like and Muslims tend to dislike American popular culture. In Malaysia, the minority Buddhist community has a more positive view than does the majority Muslim population.

Americans are divided in their views of popular culture from other countries – 45% say they like foreign music, movies, and television, while 44% say they do not care for these foreign imports.

Too Much America in Most Countries

While affection for American popular culture remains common in much of the world, so does concern over the spread of American ideas and customs. In 37 of 46 countries outside the U.S., at least 50% say it is bad that American ideas and customs are spreading to their societies. This anxiety about “Americanization” was widespread in 2002 as well, although in many countries concerns have further strengthened over the past five years. Worries have especially increased in Western and Eastern Europe, including nations such as Bulgaria, Britain, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Americans have a very different perspective on this issue; two-thirds (67%) say it is a good thing that their country’s ideas and customs are spreading around the world, although enthusiasm has waned since 2002 when 79% backed the diffusion of American ideas and customs.

Many Still Believe Better Lives Can Be Built in America

Despite the decline in America’s image over the last few years, many people throughout the world say people who move to the U.S. have a better life there than in the country from which they emigrated. Majorities or pluralities in 34 of 46 nations outside the U.S. say that people who move to the U.S. have a better life there. In no country does a majority say emigrants to the U.S. have a worse life. When asked whether people who come to the U.S. from other countries have a better life here, Americans overwhelmingly say yes: 82% believe immigrants enjoy a better life in America.

The perception that America provides good opportunities for emigrants is common even in countries where U.S. favorability is low or has dipped in recent years. In Morocco, for example, where only 15% current view the U.S. positively, just over half (52%) think Moroccans who have moved there have a better life.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is the largest ever series of multinational surveys focusing on worldwide issues. The project began in June 2001 with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to conduct an international survey on globalization and democratization. However, following the tragic events of September 11th, much of our focus shifted – we became primarily concerned with how America is perceived abroad and with global attitudes toward the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

I am here to tell you what we have learned over these years about international opinion of the U.S., including views of its policies, values, and people. Since our first poll in June 2002, we have interviewed in depth about 110,000 people in 50 countries. I believe it is fair to say we have been the first and foremost chronicler of the rise of anti-Americanism in the 21st century. Indeed, the headlines of our annual reports on America’s image tell the story:

• December 2002 – America’s image slips, although goodwill towards the U.S. remains
• June 2003 – U.S. image plunges in the wake of the Iraq war
• March 2004 – No improvement in U.S. image, some worsening in Europe
• June 2005 – U.S. image improves slightly, although still negative in most places; and anti-Americanism is becoming increasingly entrenched
• June 2006 – Show little further progress – in fact some back sliding. Even as the publics of the world concurred with the Americans on many global problems.

This survey highlighted the extent to which the Iraq war is a drag on perceptions of the U.S., even among publics of our oldest allies who largely agree with the U.S. on any number of threats to global stability including Iran and North Korea.

To give you some sense of the magnitude of the problem, favorable attitudes toward the U.S. declined in Germany, from 78% in 2000 to 37% currently. The numbers are similar in France, but even worse in Spain, where only 23% have a favorable view, and in Turkey, where it is 12%. Most people in these countries held positive views of the U.S. at the start of the decade.

Features of Current Anti-Americanism

Beyond the bottom line percentages I would like to describe to you what we have learned about nature of the anti-Americanism we see today.

First, it is worldwide. This is not just a rift with our European allies or hatred of America in the Middle East. It is a global slide, and positive views of the U.S. have declined in other regions of the world, particularly in Latin America and Asia. Our 44-country 2002 poll found America’s image slipping in seven of the eight Latin American countries surveyed, while our 2006 survey revealed declines in Japan and India, two still relatively pro-American Asian powers. Other polls international polls, such as BBC and Gallup have confirmed the continuing world-wide nature of America’s image problem.

Second, while anti-Americanism is a global phenomenon, it is clearly strongest in the Muslim world. For instance, in all five predominantly Muslim countries included in our 2006 study, fewer than one-third of those surveyed had a favorable view of the U.S. Moreover, with the Iraq war, anti-Americanism spread to parts of the Muslim world where the U.S. had previously been relatively popular. In Indonesia, for example, between 2002 and 2003 America’s favorability rating dropped from 61% to only 15%. In Turkey it plunged from 52% in the late 1990s to 15% by 2003.

After Iraq, many in Muslim countries began to see the U.S. as a threat to Islam, and what had perhaps been loathing for the U.S. turned into both fear and loathing. A 2005 Pew study found that in all five majority Muslim countries surveyed, solid majorities said they worried that the U.S. might become a military threat to their country. This includes 65% in Turkey – a longstanding NATO ally.

Third, among many people, anti-Americanism is an intensely held opinion, which makes it difficult to change. The first eye opener for me was a 2003 European Union poll that 53% of people in EU countries saw the U.S. as a threat to world peace. Strikingly, Europeans were as likely to say this about the U.S. as they were to say it about Iran and North Korea.

The 2006 Pew survey had similar findings. The British, French, and Spanish publics were all more likely to say the U.S. presence in Iraq poses a great danger to regional stability and world peace than to say this about the current governments of Iran or North Korea.

A fourth feature of contemporary anti-Americanism is that it is no longer just the U.S. as a country that is perceived negatively, but increasingly the American people as well, a sign that anti-American opinions are deepening and becoming more entrenched. In countries such as Spain, Jordan, Indonesia, and Turkey, favorable views of Americans have declined significantly in recent years.

In 2005, we asked people around the world about the kinds of characteristics they associate with the American people, and we found a somewhat mixed picture. On the positive side, we are widely seen as hardworking and inventive. On the negative side, in most of the countries surveyed, fewer than half said Americans are honest, while majorities said we are greedy and violent. Significant numbers also considered Americans rude and immoral.

One note about American greediness and our own self-image – while publics in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere characterize Americans as greedy, we Americans are actually more likely than any other public to say we are greedy and many Americans think the description immoral fits too.

However, the biggest gap between American self-perceptions and how others perceive us is with regard to religiosity. In much of western Europe, the U.S. as a country is considered too religious – our 2005 poll found that majorities in France and the Netherlands and pluralities in Britain and Germany see the U.S. this way. By contrast, a 58% majority of Americans say their country is not religious enough. On this point, Muslims find themselves in rare agreement with the American public; majorities in Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan all believe the U.S. is not religious enough.

Causes of Anti-Americanism

There are a number of factors driving anti-Americanism around the world. Among Muslims, first and foremost is thinking that American policy is too supportive of Israel at the expense of Palestine. Even in Kuwait – an Arab and Muslim country that is relatively pro-American – 77% in a May 2003 poll said the U.S. favors Israel too much.

The U.S.-led war on terrorism is also perceived quite negatively throughout much of the Muslim world. Our recent polling has found declining support for America’s anti-terrorism efforts in many parts of the globe, but the war on terror has always been largely unpopular in Muslim countries, where it is seen as an American campaign specifically against unfriendly Muslim governments. For instance, a May 2004 Pew survey showed that 53% of Jordanians and 51% of Pakistanis believe the real purpose of the war on terror is to target unfriendly Muslims governments and groups.

And of course, widespread opposition to the war in Iraq has intensified anti-American sentiments among Muslim publics. Our 2006 poll showed that majorities in Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, and Pakistan believe the war has made the world a more dangerous place.

All of this has created a situation in which anger at the U.S. is pervasive throughout much of the Muslim world. Overwhelming majorities in countries such as Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, and Turkey continue to dislike the United States. And dishearteningly, America’s most visible enemy, Osama bin Laden, is viewed favorably by a significant number of people in many places, including nations such as Pakistan and Jordan that are key partners in America’s efforts to combat al Qaeda and similar terrorist groups – the 2006 Pew poll indicated that 38% of Pakistanis and 24% of Jordanians have a lot or some confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing in world affairs.

The 2005 Pew poll found that many in Muslim countries believe suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable. Just over half of Moroccans (56%) and 49% of Jordanians think such attacks are justifiable. Even in Turkey, where bin Laden is unpopular and support for terrorism is generally low, about one-in-four say suicide bombings against Americans and Westerners in Iraq can be justified.

But, as we have documented, anti-Americanism is the case in much of the world, not just Muslim countries, and certain aspects of American power and American policy are central to this. First, there is a general perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally in the international arena, failing to take into account the interests of other countries when it makes foreign policy decisions. Our polling since 2001 has shown a growing perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally, and the war in Iraq has crystallized that opinion. In 2005, only 18% of the French, 19% of the Spanish, and 21% of Russians said that the U.S. takes into account the interests of countries like theirs when making policy.

In many countries there is a consensus that the United States is doing too little to help solve the world’s problems. Americans however, disagree; in fact a plurality thinks we are doing too much. America’s image also suffers from the perception that U.S. policies contribute to the gap between rich and poor countries. In 2002, majorities or pluralities in 38 of 43 countries, including a plurality of Americans, said U.S. policies add to the rich-poor divide.

When we ask people who have an unfavorable view of the U.S. whether this is mostly because of President Bush or a more general problem with America, in most countries they have tended to say it is President Bush – but less so since his re-election, according to our 2005 poll. Clearly, President Bush and his administration’s policies have been lightning rods for U.S. criticism. At the same time, however, it is clear that this problem seems bigger than the feelings people may have about President Bush and his administration. Underlying much of the anti-Americanism we are witnessing is a broad discomfort with unrivaled American power.

Many people are resentful of American power. This came home to us well before the U.S. image plummeted in response to the war in Iraq. Shortly after the September 11th attacks we interviewed elites in 24 countries, and overwhelmingly they told us that many or most of the people in their countries were sympathetic to us over our losses, but as many said their publics “think it is good that Americans now know what it is like to be vulnerable.”

People are also suspicious of American power. In a 2004 Pew poll, majorities or pluralities in seven of the nine countries surveyed said the U.S.-led war on terrorism was not really a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism. This was true not only in Muslim countries such as Morocco and Turkey, but in France and Germany as well. The true purpose of the war on terrorism, according to these skeptics, is American control of Middle East oil and U.S. domination of the world.

There are other factors that contribute to the rise of anti-Americanism. Looking at the divide between Europe and the U.S., it is particularly stark on questions about using military force, especially preemptive force. While Americans generally prefer containment to preemption, they nonetheless are much more willing to accept preemption than are Europeans. And our 2004 poll found sharp differences over the importance of multilateral approaches to the use of force – while majorities in Britain, France, and Germany think that when countries are faced with an international threat they should first get UN approval before using military force, a plurality of Americans disagree. Overall, Americans are more likely than Europeans to regard military action as a legitimate means of achieving international justice.

Our polling also indicates that in much of the world there is a rejection of “Americanization” – the wide diffusion of American ideas and customs fueled by globalization. On the one hand we find admiration for our science and technology and eager consumers of our popular culture, but on the other global complaints about Americanization. In 2002, majorities or pluralities in 35 of 42 nations said the spread of American ideas and customs to their countries was a bad thing. As we repeat these questions in coming months, I have little doubt that we will find a similar love-hate view of American exports.

In seeking to understand anti-Americanism, many commentators have emphasized differences between the U.S. and other countries over basic values, particularly the “values gap” between the U.S. and Europe. And it is true that Americans are different. We are more individualistic and we feel a stronger sense of personal empowerment than people in most countries. We are more likely to resist government efforts to restrict personal freedom. Consistent with our history as an immigrant nation, we have more positive attitudes about immigration than do citizens in much of the developed world. And our religiosity sets us apart – the U.S. is by far the most religious rich country in the world.

At the same time, compared to Europeans, we are more suspicious of the power of government, more nationalistic, much less supportive of a social safety net and less willing to sacrifice to improve the environment.

However, the values gap is no greater now than it was in the early 1990s when the U.S. was broadly popular. And while global publics acknowledge value differences with Americans, Europeans say their real problem with the U.S. is policy, not conflicting philosophical or ideological beliefs about politics and society.

I believe the true significance of the values gap is that it exacerbates policy differences. For instance, European reactions to President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” State of the Union speech in 2002 revealed serious foreign policy differences with the United States – differences that were intensified by a general unease among secular Europeans with the speech’s rhetorical mixture of political and religious themes.

With regard to Europe, there are few signs that Europeans want the kind of close relationship they once had with the U.S. Our 2005 survey found that the Spanish, British, Dutch, Germans, and French all wanted Europe to take a more independent approach from the U.S. on security and diplomatic affairs. And while the 2006 poll found strong agreement between Americans and Europeans about common threats such as Iran and Hamas, these shared concerns are not translating into greater trust in America among Europeans. Strikingly, China now has a better image than the U.S. in most of the European nations we surveyed last year.

Conclusion: A Difficult Global Environment, But Some Hopeful Signs

Our surveys have brought home to Americans and their leaders the challenges the United States faces in restoring our country’s image and its influence overseas. The U.S. continues to meet with widespread antipathy in many parts of the world, and in particular it faces strong and growing opposition to key aspects of its foreign policy. Nonetheless, our polling has also uncovered some hopeful signs, even in Muslim countries where the U.S. faces some of its most daunting challenges.

One frequently cited example of the U.S. turning around its image in a difficult environment is Indonesia, where U.S. humanitarian assistance following the horrific December 2004 tsunami helped improve America’s image in the world’s largest Muslim country. Prior to the tsunami, favorable attitudes toward the U.S. had plummeted in reaction to the Iraq war, however after the tragedy and the influx of American aid favorable views of the U.S. more than doubled, jumping from 15% to 38%. Recently, we have seen a similar, although more limited, pattern in Pakistan where American aid following the October 2005 earthquake helped drive favorable opinions of the U.S. up slightly, from 23% in 2005 to 27% in 2006.

Of course, the impact of this humanitarian assistance should not be overstated – most of the same misgivings about America seen throughout the Muslim world can be found in Indonesia and Pakistan, and solid majorities in both countries continue to have a negative impression of the U.S. Nonetheless, these examples suggest that American policies can make a difference. Indeed, given the magnitude of negative attitudes towards the U.S. in the Muslim world and elsewhere, America’s image will only improve significantly if there are more positive international reactions to major American policies.

The real issue is the restoration of trust. The challenge is how to reverse the impact of images of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo that now shape the views of young people all around the world, as favorable depictions of America as defender of freedom in the 20th century did then.

Why is anti-Americanism on the rise? In their new book, America Against the World, Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut and journalist Bruce Stokes explore findings from the Pew Global Attitudes Project’s series of international surveys that highlight the role American values play in the worldwide rise in anti-Americanism in the 21st century. In the following excerpt, the authors examine the major factors, real and imagined, that contribute to this growing alienation between America and other countries, both friends and foes, around the globe.

Differences in American values and attitudes, modest as many may be, do matter in the daily relations between nations because of the status of the United States as an unprecedented superpower and the driving influence of American business and culture. While other publics hold exceptional views, Argentine, Czech, and Japanese exceptionalism do not face such resistance because Argentina, the Czech Republic, and Japan do not dominate the globe the way that the United States does. Americans’ exceptionalism is America’s problem, not so much because Americans are that different from others, but because any dissimilarity in attitudes or values is magnified by the United States’ place in the world, and others often resent those differences.

In pursuing these differences, it is helpful to differentiate between three types of American exceptionalism that shape both the ways that U.S. citizens look at the world and the ways that the world looks at them:

• Misunderstood exceptionalism — American values and attitudes that many in the United States as well as abroad regard as part of the problem, though there is little evidence to support this contention.
• Conditional exceptionalism — Aspects of the American character that are distinctive, but not so much that they are destined to consistently divide the American people from the rest of the world. These include values and attitudes that are products of the times or subject to the course of events and the influence of American leadership.
• Problematic exceptionalism — How Americans view themselves, their country, and the world in ways that reflect potentially unbridgeable, persistent gaps in opinions on important issues.

Not all characteristics that distinguish Americans fall neatly into one or another of these categories, of course. And it is important to emphasize that we use the term exceptionalism without the normative judgments — specifically, the implication of superiority–often associated with it. Whether the special qualities of American attitudes and values have encouraged a sense of American superiority is an issue to be explored.

Misunderstood

Two aspects of the American character — nationalism and religiosity — are assumed to significantly influence the way the United States conducts itself in the world. As Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has put it, “Today’s strident anti-Americanism represents much more than a wimpy reaction to U.S. resolve or generic fears of a hegemon running amok. Rather, the growing unease with the United States should be seen as a powerful global backlash against the spirit of American nationalism that shapes and animates U.S. foreign policy.”¹

Reflecting the world’s worries at the time of the run-up to the war in Iraq, the editors of The Economist opined that, “only one thing unsettles George Bush’s critics more than the possibility that his foreign policy is secretly driven by greed. That is the possibility that it is secretly driven by God….War for oil would merely be bad. War for God would be catastrophic.”²

Such punditry makes convincing reading because it reinforces longstanding prejudices. And certainly, long-term U.S. support for Israel, and, more recently, strong support among Christian evangelicals for the repossession by the Jewish people of the land promised in the Bible, have heightened concern in predominately Muslim countries — as well as in Europe — that America is on a religious crusade. But little hard data support the idea that either religiosity or nationalism plays a significant role in Americans’ actual opinions about how the United States should relate to the world.

The City on a Hill Syndrome

Nothing is more vexing to foreigners than Americans’ belief that America is a shining city on a hill — a place apart where a better way of life exists, one to which all other peoples should aspire. And, compared with Western Europeans, average Americans are more likely to express their pride and patriotism. In 1999, when Americans were asked to account for their country’s success in the 20th century, they credited the “American system.” Many among the public may have been frustrated by how the system operated, but they liked the design.

At the same time, Americans also hold a number of other attitudes that mitigate their nationalism. Most important, contrary to widespread misconceptions, Americans’ pride in their country is not evangelistic. The American people, as opposed to some of their leaders, seek no converts to their ideology. A Gallup poll taken in February 2005, just days after President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in which he made far reaching and eloquent calls for increased democracy in the Middle East, found that only 31 percent of the U.S. public thought that building democracy should be a very important goal of U.S. foreign policy. Their real priorities were preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and maintaining U.S. military power, not planting the flag of American-style democracy in far-away places. A subsequent poll for the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, conducted in September 2005, found only 27 percent of the public strongly committed to spreading democracy.³

Similarly, while U.S. citizens are alone in thinking it is a “good thing” that American customs are spreading all around the world, they see people from other countries benefiting more from such Americanization than themselves. Americans are accused of believing “Aren’t we great? Do as we do!” In reality, they are far more likely to say, “We think the American way is great; we assume you want to be like us, but, if you don’t, that’s really not our concern.”

The ordinary American’s modest appetite for spreading U.S. ideals goes hand in hand with the public’s lack of imperial aspirations. Consider the American reaction to the collapse of the Soviet Union. While pundits and politicians made much of the vindication of democracy and capitalism, ordinary Americans barely paid attention–less than half the public very closely followed news about the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, according to Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press surveys at the time. Far from a mood of triumph or hunger for world domination, the American public became even more indifferent to international affairs than it had been, while the size of the isolationist minority in the United States rose to a 40-year high.

Today, in a more dangerous and contentious time, even American elites — academics, journalists, business leaders and so forth — show few aspirations for empire and little appetite for proselytizing. While two out of three American opinion leaders believe that the United States should play a strong leadership role in the world (twice the proportion of the public at large), fewer than 10 percent think the United States should be the single world leader– a consistent finding in surveys throughout the 1990s and into 2001. Further, American elites have not given the spread of democracy around the world much greater priority than has the average citizen.⁴

It is true that the idea that the United States should play the evangelist because its values are the “right” ones has in recent years echoed in speeches by America’s leaders and in commentaries by political analysts. Writing in the Weekly Standard, Robert Kagan and William Kristol asserted in 2002 that “September 11 really did change everything…. George W. Bush is now a man with a mission. As it happens, it is America’s historic mission.”⁵ But while Bush administration officials and many neo-conservatives have given the impression that U.S. nationalism is proactive and evangelistic, their views do not reflect general public opinion.

The case that Americans are dangerously nationalistic is further undermined by Americans’ refreshing penchant for self-criticism. Pew’s 2005 global survey asked people in 16 countries and the United States what words or phrases they associated with the American people. Fully 70 percent of Americans described their fellow countrymen as greedy, a harsher criticism than that leveled by any non-Americans in the survey. About half of Americans, 49 percent, saw themselves as violent, a self-criticism with which majorities agreed in 13 of the 16 other countries surveyed. These significant reservations about their own character suggest a healthy self-doubt that tempers any tendencies toward imperial hubris.

America, the Blessed Nation

American religiosity is also a growing concern to many foreigners. This is especially the case among America’s traditional European allies, who are among the most secular people in the world. However, American religious fervor also influences the views of people in some Muslim societies.

The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state — but an equally powerful inclination to mix religion with politics. Throughout the nation’s history, great political and social movements — from abolition to women’s suffrage to civil rights to today’s struggles over abortion and gay marriage — have drawn upon religious institutions for moral authority, inspirational leadership, and organizational muscle. But for the past generation, religion has come to be woven more deeply into the fabric of partisan politics than ever before.

Within the United States, there is little question that religious views have a decided impact on many social issues such as abortion, end-of-life decisions, stem cell research and homosexuality. In fact, whether a person regularly attends church or synagogue or mosque was more important in determining his or her vote for president in 2004 than such demographic characteristics as gender, age, income, and region; and it was just as important as race.

Little wonder then that a solid majority of European respondents in Pew’s 2005 poll described the American people as “too religious.” It is also not surprising that critics of President Bush would see his religious and moralistic rhetoric — especially in his use of the phrase, “axis of evil” — as just the kind of American religious fervor that they fear in U.S. foreign policy. Upon hearing that Christian fundamentalists in the United States link their support for Israel to their own apocalyptic vision of history, it is understandable that Muslims might fear that religious conservatives are driving U.S. Middle-East policy.

Yet there is little evidence that Americans make their judgments about world affairs based on their religious beliefs. For nearly a decade, Pew has asked national samples of the U.S. public how they feel about a range of concerns to discover what factors were most influential in shaping their opinions. On personal issues, such as gay marriage, euthanasia, and cloning, those who take conservative stances do largely credit their religious beliefs. But this link between religion and policy did not exist when it came to the use force in the Balkans and Iraq, or even in preventing genocide. Only when people were asked about their basic sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute did religion emerge as a significant factor and even then, Americans cited media coverage as a stronger influence on their support for Israel.

Thus, while Americans are clearly nationalistic and quite religious, there is little evidence that either their patriotism or their faith drives public support for the more activist and unilateralist U.S. foreign policy that has fueled anti-Americanism in recent years.

It All Depends

The world’s biggest complaint about the United States is that Washington too often acts unilaterally, without concern for the interests of others. Certainly the American public is ambivalent about multilateralism, running hot and cold on whether the United States should cooperate with allies or adopt a go-it-alone approach.

This conflict in public thinking was clearly illustrated in an August 2004 Pew and Council on Foreign Relations poll that found two-thirds of the U.S. public saying that the United States was less respected globally than in the past and by roughly a two-to-one margin viewing this loss as a major problem for the nation.⁶ But in the same poll Americans ranked improving relations with allies only ninth out of 19 international objectives. Further Pew polls that year found that Americans, unlike Europeans, felt that their country did not need to seek UN approval in order to take preventive military action to protect itself and that the United States ensure that the country remains the sole global military superpower. Three months after the August 2004 survey, voters re-elected George W. Bush, and they did so mostly because they liked the president’s leadership style and stewardship of the war on terrorism.

While we have no public opinion data dating back to the early days of the republic, it is fair to say that unilateralism and hegemony (at least with regard to the Western Hemisphere) have been accepted by the American people for most of their history. In the view of Yale University historian John Gaddis, it was not until the mid-1930s that the United States began to pursue a more multilateralist course in foreign affairs. And even then, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to convince voters that working closely with others was the best way to preserve U.S. resources and to get the allies “to do most of the fighting.”⁷ This shift in Americans’ views about their relations with the rest of the world defined American foreign policy for the remainder of the 20th century. But the September 11 attacks have rekindled Americans’ support for unilateralism. That stance has clearly divided the U.S. public from its traditional allies.

Most Americans are oblivious to this alienation. Pew’s 17-nation poll in 2005 found that while 69 percent of Americans believed that the United States was “generally disliked” by people in other parts of the world, 67 percent also believed, quite contrary to the view of most people in other countries, that the United States paid attention to foreigners’ interests. This is a disconnect of a major order.⁸

Americans’ reawakened affinity for unilateralism also resonates with their opposition to ceding sovereignty over international endeavors. Polls have consistently found public opposition to U.S. troops serving under UN command and Americans, unlike a majority of Europeans, are not prepared to allow their soldiers to be tried in international criminal courts when charged with war crimes. U.S. citizens are also considerably less willing than other Western publics to give an international organization final say on global environmental policies.

But such go-it-alone American exceptionalism is both equivocal and conditional. While Americans are protective of their sovereignty and jealous of their right to protect themselves, the urge to be good world citizens and cooperate with allies is never far from the surface. The 2004 Pew poll also found that, by a 49 percent to 35 percent plurality, Americans continued to believe that U.S. foreign policy should take into account the interests of allies rather than be based mostly on U.S. interests. It also found rising criticism of President Bush for paying too little attention to the interest of close allies.

Furthermore, it is now the American public that seeks a closer working relationship with traditional allies, while Europeans want more space. In Pew’s 2005 survey, sizable majorities in Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Holland said that their governments should take a more independent approach to security and diplomatic affairs than they have in the past. However, two in three Americans felt that the U.S. and Western Europe should remain as close ever.

Problems, You Say?

While nationalism and religiosity are misunderstood manifestations of American exceptionalism, and U.S. internationalism often depends on the tenor of the times and who is in the White House, a deep-seated individualism, coupled with an inherent optimism, truly distinguishes Americans. The American ethic of self-reliance and independence, coupled with the unparalleled economic and military success of the United States since its founding, has given Americans boundless optimism.

But these traits entail a number of problematic consequences for the U.S. relationship with the world. First, Americans’ self-reliance leads them to believe that they really don’t need the rest of the world. For example, Pew’s surveys have found majorities of Americans saying that what happens in Europe and Asia–even events in neighbor countries, Mexico and, especially, Canada–has little, if any, impact on their lives. While these polls date to the 1990s and the early days of September 2001, there is little to suggest that these attitudes have changed. Americans have remained disinterested in foreign news except when it deals directly with the United States or the war on terrorism. Polls conducted by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) also found that, despite being citizens of the world’s leading trading economy, Americans believed that other countries benefit more from global trade than does the United States.

Indeed, Americans’ self-confidence breeds indifference and inertia toward dealing with problems generally and international problems in particular. Americans tend to minimize challenges even as they acknowledge them. In mid-1999, Pew conducted a series of major polls asking Americans to look back on the 20th century and ahead to the 21st. Despite gloomy consensus forecasts of natural disasters, environmental calamities, and international terrorism, a resounding 81 percent of adults were steadfast in their optimism about what the 21st century held for them and their families, and 70 percent believed the country as a whole would do well. Eight in ten Americans described themselves as hopeful, anticipating that the new millennium would usher in the triumph of science and technology. Majorities predicted that it was most likely cancer would be cured, AIDS would be eradicated, and ordinary people would travel in space.⁹

Such confidence in the face of looming problems is a key element in Americans’ “can do” reputation. But optimism can also reinforce a “muddle through” mentality, which, in turn, makes it more difficult to bring public pressure to bear on elected leaders to deal forcefully with problems that Americans themselves see on the horizon. For example, PIPA surveys showed that a very strong majority of the U.S. public believed that global warming is a real and serious problem. Yet 21 percent of respondents stated that unless global warming is a certainty, no steps should be taken to deal with it, and another 42 percent said only gradual, low-cost steps should be taken. Just 34 percent of the public said it was necessary to deal with global warming right now. Moreover 66 percent thought that the United States was either doing more or about as much to limit greenhouse gases as other advanced nations.

Finally, Americans’ strong sense of individual freedom combined with their overweening optimism leads many to think they can have it both ways. Energy is a prime case in point. Americans have long acknowledged the risk of dependence on foreign energy sources. Yet, even the September 11 attacks, carried out largely by nationals of Saudi Arabia, America’s largest oil provider, had minimal impact on attitudes toward the car culture. It was not until the sharp spurt in prices in late August and early September 2005 that support for policies such as tighter automobile fuel-efficiency standards and incentives for alternative energy-source development rose substantially.¹⁰ For most Americans, the high cost of gasoline represents a challenge to their assumed right to low-priced fuel, an integral part of their SUV culture.

A similar two-mindedness is apparent with respect to trade policy. Many Americans deplore the loss of U.S. jobs because of imports. But in recent years they have happily purchased record amounts of imported goods, citing their high quality and relatively low prices. In effect, Americans are saying, “protect our jobs but keep those affordable frocks and gadgets coming.”

Global Gloom and Growing Anti-Americanism

Despite an initial outpouring of public sympathy for America following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, discontent with the United States has grown around the world over the past two years. Images of the U.S. have been tarnished in all types of nations: among longtime NATO allies, in developing countries, in Eastern Europe and, most dramatically, in Muslim societies.

Since 2000, favorability ratings for the U.S. have fallen in 19 of the 27 countries where trend benchmarks are available. While criticism of America is on the rise, however, a reserve of goodwill toward the United States still remains. The Pew Global Attitudes survey finds that the U.S. and its citizens continue to be rated positively by majorities in 35 of the 42 countries in which the question was asked.¹ True dislike, if not hatred, of America is concentrated in the Muslim nations of the Middle East and in Central Asia, today’s areas of greatest conflict.

Opinions about the U.S., however, are complicated and contradictory. People around the world embrace things American and, at the same time, decry U.S. influence on their societies. Similarly, pluralities in most of the nations surveyed complain about American unilateralism. But the war on terrorism, the centerpiece of current U.S. foreign policy, continues to enjoy global support outside the Muslim world.

While attitudes toward the United States are most negative in the Middle East/Conflict Area, ironically, criticisms of U.S. policies and ideals such as American-style democracy and business practices are also highly prevalent among the publics of traditional allies. In fact, critical assessments of the U.S. in countries such as Canada, Germany and France are much more widespread than in the developing nations of Africa and Asia.

A follow-up six-nation survey finds a wide gap in opinion about a potential war with Iraq. This threatens to further fuel anti-American sentiment and divide the United States from the publics of its traditional allies and new strategic friends. But even on this highly charged issue, opinions are nuanced. Iraq is seen as a threat to regional stability and world peace by overwhelming numbers of people in allied nations, yet American motives for using force against Iraq are still suspect.

Souring attitudes toward America are more than matched by the discontent that people of the planet feel concerning the world at large. As 2002 draws to a close, the world is not a happy place. At a time when trade and technology have linked the world more closely together than ever before, almost all national publics view the fortunes of the world as drifting downward. A smaller world, our surveys indicate, is not a happier one.

The spread of disease is judged the top global problem in more countries than any other international threat, in part because worry about AIDS and other illnesses is so overwhelming in developing nations, especially in Africa. Fear of religious and ethnic violence ranks second, owing to strong worries about global and societal divisions in both the West and in several Muslim countries. Nuclear weapons run a close third in public concern. The publics of China, South Korea and many in the former Soviet Bloc put more emphasis on global environmental threats than do people elsewhere.

Dissatisfaction with the state of one’s country is another common global point of view. In all but a handful of societies, the public is unhappy with national conditions. The economy is the number one national concern volunteered by the more than 38,000 respondents interviewed. Crime and political corruption also emerge as top problems in most of the nations surveyed. Both issues even rival the importance of the spread of disease to the publics of AIDS-ravaged African countries.

These are among the principal findings of the Pew Global Attitudes survey, conducted in 44 nations to assess how the publics of the world view their lives, their nation, the world and the United States. This is the first major report on this survey. The second will detail attitudes toward globalization, modernization, social attitudes and democratization. The International Herald Tribune is our global newspaper partner and conducted in-depth interviews with citizens in five nations, some of which are quoted in this report.

The primary survey was conducted over a four-month period (July-October 2002) among over 38,000 respondents. It was augmented with a separate, six-nation survey in early November, which examined opinion concerning a possible U.S. war with Iraq.

Follow-Up Survey on Iraq

Huge majorities in France, Germany and Russia oppose the use of military force to end the rule of Saddam Hussein. The British public is evenly split on the issue. More than six-in-ten Americans say they would back such an action. But the six-nation poll finds a significant degree of agreement in Europe that Iraq is a threat to the stability of the Middle East and to world peace. More people in all countries polled say the current Iraqi regime poses a danger to peace than say the same about either North Korea or Iran.

Majorities in Great Britain, Germany and France also agree with Americans that the best way to deal with Saddam is to remove him from power rather than to just disarm him. However, the French, Germans and Russians see the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians as a greater threat to stability in the Middle East than Saddam’s continued rule. The American and British publics both worry more about Iraq than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Turkish respondents differ from Europeans about the danger posed by Iraq. They are divided on whether the regime in Baghdad is a threat to the stability of the region, and just a narrow 44% plurality thinks Saddam Hussein should be removed from power.

Fully 83% of Turks oppose allowing U.S. forces to use bases in their country, a NATO ally, to wage war on Iraq. Further, a 53% majority of Turkish respondents believe the U.S. wants to get rid of Saddam as part of a war against unfriendly Muslim countries, rather than because the Iraqi leader is a threat to peace.

While Europeans view Saddam as a threat, they also are suspicious of U.S. intentions in Iraq. Large percentages in each country polled think that the U.S. desire to control Iraqi oil is the principal reason that Washington is considering a war against Iraq. In Russia 76% subscribe to a war-for-oil view; so too do 75% of the French, 54% of Germans, and 44% of the British. In sharp contrast, just 22% of Americans see U.S. policy toward Iraq driven by oil interests. Two-thirds think the United States is motivated by a concern about the security threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

In addition, respondents in the five nations surveyed (aside from the U.S.) express a high degree of concern that war with Iraq will increase the risk of terrorism in Europe. Two-thirds of those in Turkey say this, as do majorities in Russia, France, Great Britain and Germany. By comparison, 45% of Americans are worried that war will raise the risk of terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Suspicions about U.S. motives in Iraq are consistent with criticisms of America apparent throughout the Global Attitudes survey. The most serious problem facing the U.S. abroad is its very poor public image in the Muslim world, especially in the Middle East/Conflict Area.² Favorable ratings are down sharply in two of America’s most important allies in this region, Turkey and Pakistan. The number of people giving the United States a positive rating has dropped by 22 points in Turkey and 13 points in Pakistan in the last three years. And in Egypt, a country for which no comparative data is available, just 6% of the public holds a favorable view of the U.S.

The war on terrorism is opposed by majorities in nearly every predominantly Muslim country surveyed. This includes countries outside the Middle East/Conflict Area, such as Indonesia and Senegal. The principal exception is the overwhelming support for America’s anti-terrorist campaign found in Uzbekistan, where the United States currently has 1,500 troops stationed.

Sizable percentages of Muslims in many countries with significant Muslim populations also believe that suicide bombings can be justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies. While majorities see suicide bombing as justified in only two nations polled, more than a quarter of Muslims in another nine nations subscribe to this view.

U.S. image problems are not confined to Muslim countries. The worldwide polling conducted throughout the summer and fall finds few people, even in friendly nations, expressing a very favorable opinion of America, and sizable minorities in Western Europe and Canada having an unfavorable view. Many people around the world, especially in Europe and the Middle East/Conflict Area, believe the U.S. does not take into account the interests of their country when making international policies. Majorities in most countries also see U.S. policies as contributing to the growing gap between rich and poor nations and believe the United States does not do the right amount to solve global problems.

U.S. global influence is simultaneously embraced and rejected by world publics. America is nearly universally admired for its technological achievements and people in most countries say they enjoy U.S. movies, music and television programs. Yet in general, the spread of U.S. ideas and customs is disliked by majorities in almost every country included in this survey. This sentiment is prevalent in friendly nations such as Canada (54%) and Britain (50%), and even more so in countries where America is broadly disliked, such as Argentina (73%) and Pakistan (81%).

Similarly, despite widespread resentment toward U.S. international policies, majorities in nearly every country believe that the emergence of another superpower would make the world a more dangerous place. This view is shared even in Egypt and Pakistan, where no more than one-in-ten have a favorable view of the U.S. And in Russia, a 53% majority believes the world is a safer place with a single superpower.³

The American public is strikingly at odds with publics around the world in its views about the U.S. role in the world and the global impact of American actions. In contrast to people in most other countries, a solid majority of Americans surveyed think the U.S. takes into account the interests of other countries when making international policy. Eight-in-ten Americans believe it is a good thing that U.S. ideas and customs are spreading around the world. The criticism that the U.S. contributes to the gap between rich and poor nations is the only negative sentiment that resonates with a significant percentage of Americans (39%).

Global Discontents

In most countries surveyed, people rate the quality of their own life much higher than the state of their nation; similarly, their rating of national conditions is more positive than their assessment of the state of the world. Even so, the survey finds yawning gaps in perceptions dividing North America and Western Europe from the rest of the world.

Americans and Canadians judge their lives better than do people in the major nations of Western Europe. But that gap is minimal when the publics of the West are contrasted with people in other parts of the world.

Asians, South Koreans excepted, are less satisfied with their lives than are Western publics. Personal contentment is especially low among Chinese and Indian respondents, and relatively few feel they have made personal progress over the past five years. Nevertheless, the Chinese and Indians are extremely optimistic about their futures. In fact, many people in Asia expect their lives to get better. This is the case in the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Indonesia. The Chinese and the Vietnamese, in particular, have great confidence that their children will lead better lives than they have. By contrast, the Japanese are among the gloomiest people in Asia, whether reflecting on the past, present or the future.

Latin Americans present a very mixed picture of their lives. Mexicans, Hondurans and Guatemalans express a much higher degree of satisfaction than do people in South America. These positive assessments are notable given the large percentage of people in Mexico and the two Central American countries who say there have been times in the past year when they have been unable to afford food, health care or clothing.

Argentines are at the opposite end of the attitude spectrum. Most feel their lives have gotten worse in recent years and few express optimism about a better future. Brazilians rate their lives at present in about the same way as Argentines, but more expect progress in the future.

By nearly all measures, the Turks are among the unhappiest people surveyed. More generally, the publics of the six countries in the Middle East/Conflict Area are dissatisfied with the state of their lives, and a relatively high proportion of respondents in this region also report they have been unable to afford basic necessities in the past year.

But not having enough money for essentials is a common experience for many people outside of the advanced economies. Overwhelming majorities of African respondents say there have been times in the past year when they did not have enough money for food, clothing or health care. In much of Latin America, as well as Russia and Ukraine, majorities say there have been times in the past year when they had too little money to afford food. Only in the industrialized nations are reports of doing without the basics of life limited to a distinct minority of the population.

Yet the range of problems confronting the world’s people goes well beyond personal deprivation. Health care is high on the list of people’s concerns, as are crime and political corruption. In most countries, majorities cite crime as a major national issue.

The Global Attitudes survey finds that people living in the most globalized countries express more satisfaction with their lives and a greater sense of personal progress than do people living in less globalized nations. However, the most globalized nations are also the richest. Among poorer countries, a nation’s degree of globalization has no bearing on its citizens’ satisfaction with life, feelings of personal progress or optimism.⁴

Personal Progress In Eastern Europe

The publics of the former Soviet Bloc nations continue to lag behind Western Europeans in life satisfaction, but express more contentment than they did in the early 1990s. However, in the past five years Eastern Europeans report less personal progress than do Western Europeans.⁵

Czechs have clearly made the smoothest adjustment from the communist era. They rate their lives and the state of their country better than other countries in the region. But there are still two Germanys when it comes to personal satisfaction — the citizens of the former East Germany are much happier than they were in 1991, but they have yet to catch up with their West German counterparts.

Global Esteem for Military and Media

People around the world are generally more satisfied with their national governments than they are with national conditions. Generally, views of the economy have a much greater bearing on public satisfaction with the national government than do people’s concern for other top problems such as corruption. Many heads of state are rated better than the governments they lead. In particular, Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush are much better regarded by their constituents than are the Russian and U.S. governments, respectively. On the other hand, Canada’s Jean Chretien, and Great Britain’s Tony Blair get lower grades from their citizens than do their nation’s governments.

Perhaps reflecting international worries, the military emerges as a highly rated institution in most countries of the world. The notable exceptions are Latin American countries, notably Guatemala, Argentina and Peru. The military not only gets a better rating than the national governments in most countries, it also is more highly regarded than religious leaders in most of Europe, Asia and many countries in the Middle East/Conflict Area. This is not the case, however, in most African and Latin American nations.

Despite displeasure with national and international conditions around the globe, there is no evidence of an international shoot-the-messenger syndrome. Lopsided majorities in just about every country surveyed say that news organizations have a beneficial impact on their societies. In almost every country, the media rates higher than the national government. There is also global unanimity as to where people go for news. In the 44 nations surveyed, nearly everyone cited television news as their predominant source of information about national and international affairs.

Other notable findings:

• Unlike many publics, the Russians have a much better opinion of the United States than they had in 2000. Six-in-ten Russian respondents have a favorable view of the U.S. now, compared with 37% two years ago.
• For all of the French criticism of U.S. policies, America’s image in France has not declined over the past two years. Still, French ratings of the United States continue to be among the lowest in Europe.
• There remains a substantial gap in personal satisfaction in Germany, with respondents in former West Germany more positive about their lives than their counterparts in the East. But former West Germans are the sole European public that showed no increase in personal satisfaction since the early 1990s.
• The post-communist generation in Eastern Europe is much more upbeat about their lives than those age 35 and older.
• Despite deep dissatisfaction and pessimism about their lives and country, an unusually high proportion of Japanese say they have no major personal concerns.
• People in the West express more satisfaction with their lives than do those in emerging nations. But this pattern is reversed when respondents are asked about the future of their nation’s children. Asians, in particular, are much more optimistic about prospects for the next generation than are Americans or Europeans.
• Publics all around the world are more satisfied with their family lives than with their incomes or jobs. But people in several countries — in Africa, the Middle East/Conflict Area and Eastern Europe — voice significant discontent with their family lives.
• While crime is a top national problem all around the world, it ranks high as a pressing personal concern in Latin American countries, especially in Honduras.
• Fully 15% of Americans say there have been times in the past year they have been unable to afford food — the highest proportion in any advanced economy. But levels of reported deprivation in Angola are highest in the world; 86% of Angolans report being unable to afford food at some point in the last 12 months.
• Africa is the only region in which a significant minority volunteers hunger as a personal problem.
• Canada is the only country in the West in which a majority of those surveyed express satisfaction with national conditions.