A global image on the way down: U.S. is blamed for others' economic and social misery
Brian Knowlton/IHT International Herald Tribune Thursday, December 5, 2002 WASHINGTON The global image of the United States has suffered a dramatic bruising in the past two years, most seriously in Muslim countries but also to a surprising extent among many traditional allies, a major new opinion survey has found. The souring attitudes toward the United States were matched by broad discontent with world economic and social conditions, the survey found. Since 2000, favorability ratings for the United States have fallen in 19 of the 27 countries where trend benchmarks are available,¹¹ said a report from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center which, in association with the International Herald Tribune, surveyed 38,000 people in 44 countries in late summer and early fall. While majorities in nearly every country supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism, U.S. threats of war against Iraq appear to have heightened concerns, recorded in earlier surveys, about an American foreign policy seen as overly aggressive and insufficiently concerned with the interests of friends and allies. Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, called the breadth of the U.S. image problem surprising, attributing it in part to the United States¹ status as the world¹s sole superpower. ŒŒWhen you¹re the richest guy on the block and the most powerful nation on earth, unchallenged, you don¹t have the natural coalitions that unite you with your allies against your enemy,¹¹ he said. Tensions were arising with allies, he said, because ŒŒwe don't have a common enemy to bond us together.¹¹ Reflecting broad discontent based partly in an unusually synchronous global economic downturn, almost all national publics viewed global fortunes as drifting lower. Respondents in only 7 of 44 countries judged their national economies positively. Public issues of chief global concern, in declining order, were: AIDS and infectious diseases; religious and ethnic hatred; nuclear weapons; the rich-poor gap; and pollution and environmental problems. Other survey findings point to complicated and often conflicted views of the United States. The downward trend in the U.S. image, fueled by complaints about foreign policy, business practices and a perceived failure to do enough to narrow the global rich-poor gap, was offset somewhat by persisting reserves of goodwill. The United States and its citizens continue to receive overall positive ratings by majorities in 35 of the 42 countries in which the question was asked ‹ and there was a surprising rise in U.S. favorability in Russia. But while many people still admire U.S. technological achievements and cultural exports, majorities in nearly every country said they disliked the spread of U.S. influence. Few people, even in close allies like Canada, Mexico, Britain and Germany, expressed a ŒŒvery favorable¹¹ opinion of the United States. Anti-American sentiment was striking in Egypt, one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid and a country considered pivotal to U.S. policy in the Middle East. The 6 percent of Egyptians with favorable views of the United States were outnumbered more than 11-to-1 by those holding unfavorable views. In Pakistan, which has provided crucial support to the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan, unfavorable views dominated by about 7 to 1. Reaction to the war on terror or the U.S. threats to Iraq appeared to propel some of the sharpest shifts in opinion of the United States. The U.S. favorability figure in Germany, where the possibility of war on Iraq is so deeply unpopular that it caused testy relations with the Bush administration, dropped from nearly 80 percent two years ago to about 60 percent this year; pressure on Indonesia, a populous Muslim country, to crack down on terrorists may have fueled a 14 percent drop in the U.S. favorability rating. The numbers plunged in Turkey and Pakistan as well. But in Russia, which has supported the U.S. crackdown on terror and where a close personal friendship has evolved between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, the rise in U.S. favorability rankings has been large, to 61 percent from 37 percent. Ambivalence to the spread of American culture and values was a recurring theme in the poll. In Canada, for example, 54 percent of those surveyed said the spread of American ideas and customs was bad, to 37 percent who found it good. Yet when asked whether they liked American music, movies and television, more than 3 in 4 Canadians said they did. Similar contradictions prevailed in Britain, Germany, France and other countries. Eight in 10 Americans, meanwhile, said that the spread of U.S. ideas and customs was a good thing. Many people around the world said that the United States did not adequately consider their countries¹ interests. This was in stark contrast to Americans¹ solidly held view that the United States does take others¹ interests into account. U.S. policy in the Middle East was another factor fueling anti-American sentiment, dramatically in the region but also in Europe. In addition, majorities in most countries say that the United States does too little to solve global problems. Despite widespread reservations about U.S. power and influence, the people of no country said that the emergence of another superpower would make the world safer. Even 53 percent of Russians said that the world was safer with a single superpower. While many people expressed concerns about the world economy or their national economies, satisfaction with life rose strongly in the past decade through much of Europe, with a rise of 21 points in France, 12 points in Italy and 18 points in the Czech Republic. Younger East Europeans were particularly upbeat. German correspondents displayed the effects of the huge West German investment into Eastern Germany; there was a 21-point rise (to 36 percent) in life satisfaction in the Eastern region, while satisfaction in Western Germany remained steady at 52 percent ‹ the only European public to show no increase in personal satisfaction since the early 1990s. While Canadians and Americans judged their lives to be better than those of people of major West European nations, the big gap was between people in the West and the rest. Asians, and particularly Chinese and Indians, were less satisfied with their lives than were Westerners. Yet, the Chinese and the Indians, and many others in Asia, were extremely optimistic about prospects for their children. In Japan, where the economy has struggled for more than a decade, respondents were among the gloomiest of the Asians. Yet, an unusually high proportion of Japanese reported no major personal concerns. The economy surely was a key reason for Argentine pessimism; most said their lives had got worse in recent years; and respondents in Turkey, facing the soaring unemployment rate that contributed to the recent electoral success of an Islamic political party, were among the unhappiest people surveyed. While few in the West reported ever doing without the basics of life, Overwhelming majorities in Africa said there had been times in the past year when they had too little money for food, clothing or health care. Majorities in Latin America, Russia and Ukraine also had faced times when they had too little to afford food. Fifteen percent of Americans said they had been unable to afford food at times in past year ‹ the highest of any advanced economy. But most people in the West expressed positive views of their personal lives. Two-thirds of Canadians and nearly as many Americans gave their current lives the highest rating; smaller majorities in Western Europe did the same. Outside the West, satisfaction levels were far lower. East Europeans expressed considerable unhappiness with their lives. Only 1 in 5 Russians rated his or her life highly, though younger people were more upbeat. Fewer than 4 in 10 Africans surveyed rated their lives highly. African countries accounted for 9 of the 11 poorest countries in the survey. Income alone did not fully explain people¹s evaluations of their lives. Mexicans and South Koreans expressed roughly the same satisfaction levels as West Europeans did, though per-capita incomes in Europe are much higher. A tendency emerged for people to be particularly pessimistic about conditions far from their homes. The people of most countries surveyed rated the quality of their own life as much higher than the state of their country, and rated national conditions as better than their assessment of the world. Perhaps reflecting security concerns around the world, the military emerged as a highly rated institution in most countries; notable exceptions were in Latin American countries with histories of military dictatorships or abuses of power, including Guatemala and Argentina. Despite displeasure with national and international conditions, few blamed the messengers. Lopsided majorities in almost every country said that news organizations had a beneficial impact on their societies, rating them higher than their national governments. Television was the predominant source of information on national and international affairs cited by nearly all respondents in the 44 countries surveyed.
