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Paris: There is good news and bad news for President Bush as he pursues his valedictory tour of Europe this week, according to a new worldwide study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. The image of the US has improved slightly in many countries over the past year, the poll results show. But the new optimism appears to be driven largely by the fact that Bush will soon be leaving office.
Meanwhile, the survey showed that many across the globe blamed the US at least in part for slumping economies and global warming.
"There has been no sea change in world views of the United States," Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Centre, said of the results, which were released on Thursday. "Europeans are still much more negative than they were at the beginning of the decade, and highly negative views prevail in the Muslim world. But there are some indications that the world sees the possibility of change with the prospect of a new president."
The 24-nation survey, conducted in March and April, shows that many people who have been following the presidential race have greater confidence in Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, than in his Republican rival, Senator John McCain, "to do the right thing regarding world affairs". This feeling is strongest in Europe, Australia, Japan and Tanzania, which borders on Kenya, the homeland of Obama's father.
Meanwhile, the survey found perceptions that China was ascendant in world affairs. Many people - including 3 out of 10 Americans - think China will eventually replace the US as the world's leading superpower.
Anxiety about the economy was reported as widespread.
Economic worries
"In three-quarters of the countries Pew surveyed (18), a majority now say that their national economic conditions are bad - far more than just one year ago," the report said. Notable exceptions are India, Australia and China, where 82 per cent see the current economic situation as good.
Overall, majorities in 18 of the 24 survey countries are generally dissatisfied with the way things are going at home. The big exception is again China, where 86 per cent express satisfaction, up from 83 per cent last year.
In the US, where 70 per cent are dissatisfied with the way things are going, pessimism extends beyond the economy to the country's chief foreign policy challenge: only a minority of Americans (40 per cent) now think efforts to establish a democratic government in Iraq will definitely or probably succeed. In 2006, a majority (54 per cent) still believed that success was likely.
"When asked which country is 'hurting the environment the most,' majorities or pluralities in most countries surveyed cite the United States," the Pew report said. "But people are increasingly pointing fingers at China."
The US and China are among the 10 countries where majorities do not define global warming as a very serious problem.
The survey of 24,717 people is the seventh major study conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project since 2002.
Although opinions of the US had been in steady decline since the invasion of Iraq, there was a significant increase in positive views this year in 10 of the 21 countries for which comparative data was available, including Poland and Indonesia.
Despite the upward trend, there are still just eight survey countries where majorities now have a favourable view of the US: Britain, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Tanzania.
In fact, in one-third of the survey countries, more respondents see the US more as an enemy than as a partner. This view is especially strong in Turkey, a Nato ally, and in Pakistan, a partner in US efforts to fight terrorism.
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| This article on the national political campaigns in the United States is from The New York Times. It was specially selected and prepared by the editors of The New York Times News Service. |
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