Originally published on the CGS blog on July 7, 2009.
A lecture on world opinion towards the United States in its transition to the Obama era was led by Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org and Randa Slim of the United States Institute for Peace on July 7. Mr. Kull opened the meeting with a series of graphs which depicted the attitudes of numerous key nations regarding the U.S. The graphs showed that throughout most of the world, there has been an overall improvement in opinion towards the United States since President Obama took office. However, Mr. Kull’s information demonstrated that there is still room for improvement.
The most dramatic increase in positive opinion towards America can be seen in Europe, a region that was no fan of President Bush but has considerable confidence in the new administration. In addition, a high percentage of people in the world think of America as cooperative in its foreign policy; and most seem to view the U.S. as respectful of human rights. However, Mr. Kull’s information revealed that around 65% of the world believes that America often uses coercive means to attain its interests. The same percentage feel that although the U.S. works to promote international law, it is hypocritical for not following the same laws it promotes. Overall though, world opinion of America regarding almost all topics has improved since the end of the Bush presidency.
However, the world region that still has the lowest opinion of the U.S. is the Middle East. It was this topic that the second speaker, Randa Slim, spoke of. Ms. Slim stated that the Arab world views the new President with hope, and has placed rather high expectations on him. She worries though, that the President has only a small window to create a more congenial relationship with the greater Middle East – a window that may close if he is not perceived by the Arabs as having lived up to their expectations of him. Ms. Slim suggests that instead of starting off by tackling the big issues between the U.S. and the Muslim world, Obama should work on making a few small, but noticeable successes in the region to buy him the time he needs to work on the more complex problems between the two historic rivals.
To read Steven Kull’s data in detail, please follow the link: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/views_on_countriesregions_bt/623.php?lb=btvoc&pnt=623&nid=&id=
