Quentin Peel: Old Europe loses enthusiasm for US
Quentin Peel: Old Europe loses enthusiasm for US
By Quentin Peel . Copyright by The Financial Times
Published: June 16 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 16 2006 03:00
It is scarcely news these days to report that America's image in the world is sliding. It has been doing so almost constantly since George W. Bush was elected president. The outpouring of sympathy after 9/11 swiftly evaporated when the US administration was seen to be unilateralist and deaf to advice in its "war on terror" and invasion of Iraq.
The trend has not stopped. It showed brief signs of abating last year, in part because of a positive response to US aid for tsunami victims around the Indian Ocean.
But the latest edition of the excellent Pew Global Attitudes Survey - the seventh since 2001 - shows that favourable opinions of the US have fallen again in 12 out of 15 countries polled.
The same is true of attitudes to the "war on terror", with only two countries - India and Russia - showing majority support.
Yet crude measures of anti-Americanism, or the failure of US public diplomacy, are not what is most interesting about the report, published by the non-partisan Pew Research Center in Washington. More revealing are the stark differences in some attitudes between the US and its old allies, especially in Europe, plus Russia, India, China and several Muslim countries - and some surprising similarities. They help explain the widespread suspicion of the solitary super-power, and areas where it may change.
Concern about global warming is one good yardstick.
The two countries least concerned about the trend are the US and China, where only 19 and 20 per cent respectively say they "worry a great deal" about the problem. As they are the two largest producers of greenhouse gases on the planet, it is scarcely surprising that such attitudes cause resentment in Spain, where 51 per cent worry a lot, or Japan, where 66 per cent do so, not to mention the rest of the world.
China and the US do not have similar attitudes on much else, although China is one of the few countries where a favourable opinion of Americans (as opposed to the US government) increased, from 43 to 49 per cent, since last year.
Confidence in Mr Bush is now lower in Britain, France, Germany and Spain - all Nato allies - than it is in China, India, Japan and Nigeria. The former range from the UK, where 30 per cent still have some confidence in the president, down to Spain, where only 7 per cent do. His worst rating of all is in Turkey, with just 3 per cent.
The war in Iraq is seen by a clear majority in all the countries surveyed, except India and Nigeria, as having made the world more dangerous.
In France 76 per cent say so, and even in Britain 60 per cent agree. In the US, 51 per cent still believe the invasion made the world a safer place, against 37 per cent who say the opposite.
On Iran, however, there is a significant narrowing of the gap in perceptions and attitudes between the US and its old allies. In the US, 92 per cent oppose Iran getting nuclear weapons, the same as in France, and less than Germany's 97 per cent.
Indeed France, Germany and Spain all have a less favourable attitude towards Iran than the US.
There is another telling difference, however, between Europe and America.
When asked how many people had heard about big international news stories such as bird flu, global warming, Iran's nuclear dispute, or Guantánamo Bay, Americans were consistently less well informed than Europeans.
As for the story with the most impact, it was bird flu.
By Quentin Peel . Copyright by The Financial Times
Published: June 16 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 16 2006 03:00
It is scarcely news these days to report that America's image in the world is sliding. It has been doing so almost constantly since George W. Bush was elected president. The outpouring of sympathy after 9/11 swiftly evaporated when the US administration was seen to be unilateralist and deaf to advice in its "war on terror" and invasion of Iraq.
The trend has not stopped. It showed brief signs of abating last year, in part because of a positive response to US aid for tsunami victims around the Indian Ocean.
But the latest edition of the excellent Pew Global Attitudes Survey - the seventh since 2001 - shows that favourable opinions of the US have fallen again in 12 out of 15 countries polled.
The same is true of attitudes to the "war on terror", with only two countries - India and Russia - showing majority support.
Yet crude measures of anti-Americanism, or the failure of US public diplomacy, are not what is most interesting about the report, published by the non-partisan Pew Research Center in Washington. More revealing are the stark differences in some attitudes between the US and its old allies, especially in Europe, plus Russia, India, China and several Muslim countries - and some surprising similarities. They help explain the widespread suspicion of the solitary super-power, and areas where it may change.
Concern about global warming is one good yardstick.
The two countries least concerned about the trend are the US and China, where only 19 and 20 per cent respectively say they "worry a great deal" about the problem. As they are the two largest producers of greenhouse gases on the planet, it is scarcely surprising that such attitudes cause resentment in Spain, where 51 per cent worry a lot, or Japan, where 66 per cent do so, not to mention the rest of the world.
China and the US do not have similar attitudes on much else, although China is one of the few countries where a favourable opinion of Americans (as opposed to the US government) increased, from 43 to 49 per cent, since last year.
Confidence in Mr Bush is now lower in Britain, France, Germany and Spain - all Nato allies - than it is in China, India, Japan and Nigeria. The former range from the UK, where 30 per cent still have some confidence in the president, down to Spain, where only 7 per cent do. His worst rating of all is in Turkey, with just 3 per cent.
The war in Iraq is seen by a clear majority in all the countries surveyed, except India and Nigeria, as having made the world more dangerous.
In France 76 per cent say so, and even in Britain 60 per cent agree. In the US, 51 per cent still believe the invasion made the world a safer place, against 37 per cent who say the opposite.
On Iran, however, there is a significant narrowing of the gap in perceptions and attitudes between the US and its old allies. In the US, 92 per cent oppose Iran getting nuclear weapons, the same as in France, and less than Germany's 97 per cent.
Indeed France, Germany and Spain all have a less favourable attitude towards Iran than the US.
There is another telling difference, however, between Europe and America.
When asked how many people had heard about big international news stories such as bird flu, global warming, Iran's nuclear dispute, or Guantánamo Bay, Americans were consistently less well informed than Europeans.
As for the story with the most impact, it was bird flu.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 4:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home