Global Attitudes Toward U.S. Foreign Policy

In three months we will mark the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Despite an initial outpouring of public sympathy for America, discontent has grown rapidly around the world over the past few years, especially with the war in Iraq. The U.S.’s image has been tarnished in Europe, especially among longtime NATO allies, as well as in Asia and the Middle East. The U.S. has tried hard to rehabilitate its image, especially in the Muslim world and repair strained relationships with its allies, a recent example being the major shift in U.S. foreign policy toward Iran. But is anti-Americanism on the decline? How much support is there for the U.S.-led War on Terror and how concerned is the world about a nuclear-armed Iran? 

To examine these questions, Brookings scholars joined the Pew Research Center to release the findings from the 2006 Pew Global Attitudes Survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project. Presenting the survey findings was Andrew Kohut, president, Pew Research Center, director, Pew Global Attitudes Project and co-author of America Against the World? Providing commentary on the findings was William Kristol, editor, the Weekly Standard and Susan E. Rice, senior fellow, Brookings. Carlos Pascual, vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings and the former coordinator of the State Department Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization, moderated the discussion.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion surveys that encompasses a broad array of subjects ranging from people’s assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day. The 2006 survey was completed among nearly 16,000 people in the U.S. and 14 other nations.