U.S. Losing Popularity in World
While a strong reserve of goodwill remains, a poll of 38,000 finds a growing number don't like America's policies or its people.
By Sonni Efron, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- America's global image has deteriorated sharply in the last two years, and U.S. citizens' views on key world issues differ markedly from public attitudes in much of the rest of the world, a landmark study of public opinion in 44 nations concludes.
While a strong reserve of goodwill toward the United States remains, and majorities in 35 countries say they support the U.S.-led war on terrorism, the percentage of people reporting a favorable opinion of the United States has fallen in 20 of 27 nations where benchmark data are available, according to the study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Anti-American sentiment in most Muslim nations is profound, with the exception of Uzbekistan. But the study revealed growing discontent, especially in the nations that know America best, over the United States' ideas of democracy, its business practices, its perceived unilateralism and policies that are seen as increasing the global gap between rich and poor.
"Relatively few Americans have any idea of how critically we are seen around the world and the ways we're criticized, and what we're criticized for," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew center, who delivered the report to the White House on Wednesday.
The study arrives at a moment when President Bush is dispatching diplomats around the world to try to build "a coalition of the willing" to change the Iraqi regime, by force if necessary. The Pew study finds the administration facing profound public opinion problems in Turkey and Pakistan, two key allies in the wars on terrorism and, potentially, Iraq.
U.S. defense officials have been visiting Turkey this week, courting its help in any war against Iraq, but the poll found that 83% of Turks are opposed to using their bases to strike its neighbor. In addition, a majority believe that a U.S. attack on Iraq would be prompted not by security concerns but part of a broader American war on unfriendly Muslim countries.
Bush on Wednesday brushed off a question about the findings on Turkey and Pakistan, saying he doesn't run his government based on polls.
"I hope the message that we fight not a religion, but a group of fanatics which have hijacked a religion, is getting through," he said. "I understand the propaganda machines are cranked up in the international community that paints our country in a bad light.
"We'll do everything we can to remind people that we've never been a nation of conquerors; we're a nation of liberators," Bush added. "And I would ask the skeptics to look at Afghanistan."
But the poll found that Americans' concerns diverge from those in much of the rest of the world. While Americans tend to name nuclear weapons as the biggest world problem, citizens of most other nations cite AIDS and other infectious diseases, pollution and environmental problems, ethnic and religious strife, and the gap between rich and poor. Crime and political corruption were cited more widely than terrorism as "very big" problems.
Hunger remains a fundamental problem, with 44% of Mexicans, 50% of Russians and 86% of Angolans polled in the capital, Luanda, and surrounding areas saying they had not had enough money to buy necessary food for their families in the last year. Poor-quality drinking water was a major concern across the developing world, as was lack of health care.
The $4-million Pew study is striking in its scope. It surveyed more than 38,000 people, most interviewed between July and October in their homes. The survey questions were translated into 46 languages and 17 dialects. In Mali, Egypt, Pakistan and some other countries, however, the respondents were concentrated in more urban areas, a sampling that could skew results.
Some questions were banned in certain countries -- a question about suicide bombers wasn't permitted by the Egyptian government, for example, and China didn't allow its citizens to be asked about the war on terrorism. The study was launched before Sept. 11, 2001, but has since been broadened, and a follow-up project on attitudes toward globalization is due next spring, Kohut said.
The results, titled "What the World Thinks in 2002," were posted on the Pew Web site, <http://www.people-press.org.>
The study appeared to confirm America's cherished stereotype that the French and other America-bashers love to lambaste the United States, then line up to eat at McDonald's, buy American gizmos and see Hollywood films.
Large majorities in Europe, most of Latin America and even Lebanon say they like American popular culture, while people in Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan dislike it by large margins. American science and technology command near-universal respect.
But in country after country where people like American technology and culture, they are displeased over the spread of American ideas.
While Japan, the Philippines, Bulgaria and most of African nations disagreed, majorities or pluralities in 29 countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia said the spread of Americanism is a bad thing. But 79% of Americans said it is a good thing.
Likewise, there is broad support for the war on terrorism, except in the Middle East, yet there is an equally strong global consensus that the U.S. disregards the views of others in carrying out its foreign policies, the report said.
In Ukraine, for example, 29% say the U.S. ignores others in foreign policymaking, but 86% support the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Seventy-five percent of Americans think the U.S. takes the interest of other countries into account "a great deal" or "a fair amount."
Although the United States' popularity ratings are slipping, most people think the emergence of a rival superpower would be dangerous. Russians agree 2 to 1 that a bipolar world would be more dangerous, and that view is widely shared in the Middle East as well, the report said. It is often assumed that foreign publics may dislike American policies, but they like Americans. "This distinction is fading, as respondents in only 13 of 43 countries surveyed expressed more positive attitudes about Americans than the U.S.," the report said.
In nearly every country in Latin America, people are at least as negative about "Americans" as they are toward "the United States." In Egypt, recipient of nearly $2 billion in U.S. aid this year, only 6% of the people interviewed hold a favorable view of the United States, and only 14% think well of Americans, the study found. In Pakistan, just 10% hold a "favorable" attitude toward the U.S., while 17% like Americans, the poll found.
In a positive development for the U.S., the Russian people have warmed substantially toward the United States, the study found.
But the Pew poll echoes the findings of other surveys showing a growing divide between the U.S. and major allies over Iraq policy.
While strong majorities in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Russia agreed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein poses a "great to moderate" danger, British public opinion is evenly split on whether to use force to remove him, and large majorities in France, Germany, Russia and Turkey oppose the use of force.
Moreover, 44% of British citizens, 75% of French, 54% of Germans and 76% of Russians believe America's motive in making war is to control Iraqi oil.
Ominously, the poll found that large fractions of the population in many Muslim countries believe that suicide bombing is justified in defense of Islam.
Majorities in Lebanon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Bangladesh shared this view, as did roughly a third of the populations of Pakistan, Mali, Ghana and Uganda, and 27% of Indonesians. However, 70% of Turks and 84% of Uzbeks thought suicide bombing was not justifiable.