Americans put low priority on promoting democracy abroad
Just 20% of U.S. adults cited promoting democracy as a top foreign policy objective, putting it at the bottom of the list of 20 topics polled.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Just 20% of U.S. adults cited promoting democracy as a top foreign policy objective, putting it at the bottom of the list of 20 topics polled.
The U.S. image abroad remains mostly positive, although it has suffered somewhat from negative views of post-9/11 interrogation methods. China also is seen positively, though not on the issue of protecting individual freedoms.
The crises in the Middle East with ISIS and the power struggle with Russian in the Ukraine have caused Americans shift to their views on U.S. global involvement.
The action most favored by Germans (69%) in response to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine is economic and financial support for Ukraine, a measure that both the U.S. and Ukraine governments have backed.
The speech also comes at a time when the American public has less of an appetite for foreign involvement and believes American clout is not what it used to be.
Vladimir Putin’s third term as Russia’s president had already been marked by clear signs of his intention to reassert his country as a world power before his move to annex Crimea. But whatever impact the latest events have on international opinion about Putin, views about him in the U.S. and allied countries had already turned negative compared to his first took office in 2000.
President Obama emphasized the importance of U.S.-European relations in Brussels today amid the allies’ growing concerns about Russia’s increasingly assertive behavior in Eastern Europe — and at a time when most Americans see political, economic and military ties with the continent as more important than they did several years ago.
About six-in-ten Americans have an unfavorable view of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a Washington Post/ABC News survey.
About two-thirds of social networkers in 20 countries say they use the sites to share views about music and movies.
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