2013: A Fateful Year
The year ahead promises both challenges and opportunities for transatlantic relations. The next 12 months could prove to be consequential for both security and economic ties between Europe and the United States.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The year ahead promises both challenges and opportunities for transatlantic relations. The next 12 months could prove to be consequential for both security and economic ties between Europe and the United States.
Ahead of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, a 21-nation survey finds that most publics around the world are broadly opposed to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, and many support economic sanctions to prevent such an acquisition. Opinion is more divided on whether military intervention should be used, especially among the six E3+3 negotiating partners.
The United States continues to receive positive ratings in much of the world, but it faces the new challenge of doubts about its superpower status. Publics around the world increasingly believe that China either will replace or already has replaced the U.S. as the world’s leading superpower.
As the global economy begins to rebound from the great recession, people around the world remain deeply concerned with the way things are going in their countries. Less than a third of the publics in most nations say they are satisfied with national conditions, as overwhelming numbers say their economies are in bad shape. [...]
Europeans and Americans share concerns about Iran’s emergent nuclear capabilities, though Russians are less worried.
Will Shared Concerns About Iran Promote Compromise?
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.
America’s global image has again slipped and support for the war on terrorism has declined even among close U.S. allies like Japan. The war in Iraq is a continuing drag on opinions of the United States, not only in predominantly Muslim countries but in Europe and Asia as well. And despite growing concern over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the U.S. presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran – and in many countries much more often – as a danger to world peace.
A multinational survey conducted in association with the International Herald Tribune and Council on Foreign Relations Europeans have a better opinion of President George W. Bush than they did before the Sept. 11 attacks, but they remain highly critical of the president, most of his policies, and what they see as his unilateral approach [...]