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POLITICS: Negative Views of U.S. Persist Despite Faith in Obama

Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON, Jul 7 2009 (IPS) - A new survey of global opinion reveals strong negative feelings toward U.S. foreign policy, even as an average of 61 percent of those polled have at least some confidence in President Barack Obama to make sound decisions.

The poll, from WorldPublicOpinion.org, a project of the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), found that people perceive the U.S. as hypocritical regarding international law and believe it treats their nations unfairly.

Fifteen countries said the U.S. abuses its power and is coercive, while overwhelming majorities in all 19 countries surveyed thought that the U.S. throws its military weight around to gain advantage.

The negative views of the U.S. and paradoxical confidence in Obama represent the dual faces of the U.S., said PIPA director Steven Kull.

“America has these two faces. One is the cooperative, restrained, rule-of-law-oriented power,” he told IPS. “And the other is one of a more traditional state that does what it can to achieve its interests, and because it has more power, it uses it unconcerned about questions of reciprocity and fairness.”

“People see both of them, and they kind of wax and wane depending on what the U.S. does,” Kull added. “The cooperative one is waxing at the moment, but the other one still exists.”

That’s why, says Kull, “Even though people like Obama, you don’t see a quantum shift in opinions of how the U.S. is perceived.”

For Obama, wiping away the “traditional state” view of a military power is an unrealistic target – that view is “very present,” said Kull, “and in some sense at its strongest ever.”

“The Obama administration really needs to find a way to integrate these images in a new way,” he said. The military superpower face of the U.S. is a reality, and question at hand is about “how it relates to the other stance of seeking a cooperative relationship”.

Nine countries said the U.S. plays a negative role in the world, including many majority Muslim countries and Iraq (53 percent) and Pakistan (69 percent), where the U.S. engages militarily.

Two-thirds of Egyptians thought the U.S. has a mainly negative impact (though data was collected mostly before Obama’s address to the Muslim world in Cairo). Only 39 percent of Egyptians have at least some confidence in Obama making good choices, but the figure represents a significant jump from the eight percent of his predecessor, George W. Bush (2001 to 2009).

In Turkey, the only other Muslim country where the president of six months has visited and spoken publicly, nearly three-quarters of respondents said that they think the U.S. plays a negative role and 86 percent say the U.S. abuses its power there.

Other majority-Muslim hotspots where Obama has focused his attention – Pakistan and the Palestinian territories – rated as the countries where smallest percentages said the U.S. treats their country fairly.

In the Palestinian territories, where Obama has inserted himself forcefully into the peace process, only 5 percent of those surveyed said that the U.S. treats them fairly. Of all the countries polled, Palestinians had the largest majority who had “no confidence at all” in Obama to “do the right thing” (79 percent).

In Pakistan, where Obama is continuing a clandestine programme of unmanned drone missile attacks and escalating the war next door in Afghanistan, only six percent of respondents said the U.S. treats them fairly.

“In the Middle East, people wonder if the U.S. is still a threat,” said Kull. “There is still this perception of the U.S. being a bully, not cooperating, being above international law.”

In Mexico, where the U.S. has supported the government in its violent fight against the drug trade, only 10 percent of those surveyed said that they are treated fairly, with 97 percent saying the U.S. abuses its power.

Averaged across all countries, only one in four respondents thought the U.S. treats them fairly.

Only three countries thought that the U.S. treats them fairly: majorities in Kenya and Nigeria (72 and 68 percent, respectively), and a plurality of Germans (48 percent).

Majorities – some as high as 79 percent – in every country other than the U.S., Kenya and Nigeria thought that the U.S. is hypocritical in its promotion of international laws in other countries because it does not abide by these rules itself.

In averages largely unchanged from last year, only about one in four respondents said the U.S. is an “important leader” in international law and “sets a good example” by playing by the rules.

The poll of nearly 20,000 people was conducted in 20 countries, including the U.S., representing 62 percent of the world’s population.

While four in five U.S. respondents said their own country plays a positive role, 71 percent of them agreed their own country “use(s) the threat of military force to gain advantages”.

Like most countries, the U.S. has greater confidence in Obama to make good decisions about foreign policy than his predecessor; 38 percent said they have “a lot of confidence” for the former while only 13 percent said the same thing last year about Bush.

Among Washington’s closest allies in Europe, where respondents saw the U.S. as generally cooperative with other nations, Obama is viewed positively by around 90 percent of British, French and Germans.

Respondents around the globe, on average, were spit on how the U.S. deals with climate change issues – 42 percent disapprove and 39 percent approve.

Asian countries – excepting China, which gave only a 21 percent approval rating – rated U.S. performance on climate change well, along with Kenya (74 percent) and Nigeria (79 percent).

In Europe and in majority-Muslim nations, respondents disapproved of U.S. efforts on climate change by majorities hovering around 60 percent.