Survey: US Image Improved Slightly in 2007

After three years of steadily declining ratings, global perception of the United States as a positive influence in the world appears to have improved marginally during 2007, according to a survey of 23 countries [.pdf] released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Wednesday.

The poll of some 17,500 respondents, carried out at the end of last year, found that "mainly positive" views of the U.S. rose on average four points, from 31 percent to 35 percent, compared to the last BBC survey taken in late 2006.

Negative views of Washington's influence also fell from 52 percent in 2006 to 47 percent by the end of 2007 – placing it fourth in the list of the world's most negatively viewed countries ahead of Iran (54 percent negative), Israel (52 percent), and Pakistan (50 percent).

Most positively viewed on the list of 13 countries and the European Union (EU) about which respondents were asked to give their opinion were Germany and Japan, whose influence on the world was assessed as "mainly positive" by 56 percent of all respondents. They were followed by the EU itself (52 percent positive), and France and Britain (50 percent).

The same countries also gained the lowest negative ratings on the list, ranging from 18 percent for Germany to 24 percent for Britain.

China was rated positively by 47 percent of respondents and negatively by 32 percent; Brazil, 44 percent positive, 23 percent negative; India, 42 percent positive, 28 percent negative; Russia, 37 percent positive, 34 percent negative; and North Korea, 23 percent positive, 44 percent negative.

The new survey, which BBC has conducted with the help of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and GlobeScan, a London-based private firm, since 2005, asked respondents to rate Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the U.S., and the EU as having a "mainly positive" or "mainly negative" influence in the world.

The 23 countries surveyed in the poll included all five Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, as well as the U.S., Mexico, and Canada in North America; and Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in South America.

Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria were polled in sub-Saharan Africa, while European countries included Britain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and Spain. Also included were Australia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results contrast to some degree with the findings of a major poll of more than 45,000 respondents published last June by the Pew Global Attitudes Project (GAP) which found that Washington's image had continued to decline well into 2007 due to growing disapproval in most of the 46 countries surveyed of U.S. interventions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The same poll found a sharp drop in the belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin would "do the right thing regarding world affairs" compared to previous years, in which the Kremlin leader enjoyed considerably greater popular approval than U.S. President George W. Bush.

By contrast, the BBC poll found Russia's image to have improved during the past year more than any other of the countries included in the list. Positive views of Russia rose on average from 29 percent to 37 percent, while negative views fell from 40 percent to 33 percent during 2007.

Negative views of Moscow declined particularly sharply in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Britain, and France, while positive views rose most sharply in South Korea (from 20 percent to 50 percent), Egypt (21 percent to 78 percent), China (59 percent to 69 percent), Turkey (16 percent to 35 percent), and even the U.S. (32 percent to 45 percent), despite a marked increase in bilateral tensions between Washington and Moscow during the year.

The improvement in foreign perceptions of the U.S. was most pronounced in South Korea, where those holding mainly positive views of Washington increased from 35 percent to 49 percent between the end of 2006 and the end of 2007; France (24 percent to 32 percent); Portugal (29 percent to 42 percent); Brazil (29 percent to 39 percent); Chile (32 percent to 41 percent); and the UAE (25 percent to 37 percent).

And while pluralities or majorities in Turkey, China, and Indonesia still held predominantly negative views of the U.S., the minority with positive views increased by 10 percent or more in each country. Overall, Washington improved its standing in 11 of the 23 countries covered by the survey.

On the other hand, majorities holding negative views of the U.S. increased markedly in three countries – Canada, Lebanon, and Egypt – while positive views in Nigeria slipped.

While respondents were not asked about why their perceptions may have changed, observers here speculated that the Bush administration's relatively greater emphasis on diplomacy over military action in its second term may have been a contributing factor, particularly with respect to South Korea and Europe.

"I think people underestimate the extent to which Bush really did an about-face when he started his second term and began pursuing a foreign policy that was something in between the neoconservatism of term one and the liberal internationalism of his predecessors," said Charles Kupchan, an international relations expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and Georgetown University.

"He got credit for that pretty quickly among foreign governments, but public opinion lagged behind. What we're seeing now is the trickle down from the elites to ordinary people," he noted, adding that a nuclear deal with North Korea and the disappearance of Iraq from the front pages of the newspapers have helped improve Washington's image.

Internal political developments, including the Democratic victory in the mid-term elections in November 2006 and the anticipation of a change in administration later this year, may also have played an important role, according to PIPA director Steven Kull. "It may be that as the U.S. approaches a new presidential election, views of the U.S. are being mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from the foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world," said Steven Kull, PIPA's director.

Like last year, Iran and Israel ranked at the bottom of the list, although negative views of Israel, whose summer war against Hezbollah in 2006 was widely unpopular, fell significantly in Europe and Latin America during 2007, according to the poll. Negative views of Israel increased in the U.S., however, increased – from 33 percent in 2006 to 39 percent. Only 43 percent of U.S. respondents said they had a positive view of the Jewish state.

Although its negative ratings were less than Israel's and Iran's, Pakistan's image was the least positive of all the countries. Only 18 percent of respondents said Islamabad's influence was mainly positive, below both Israel's 19 percent and Iran's 20 percent.

(Inter Press Service)