How the United States is Perceived in the Arab and Muslim Worlds
Testimony of Andrew Kohut, U.S. House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Testimony of Andrew Kohut, U.S. House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Concerns over Islamic extremism, extensive in the West even before this month’s terrorist attacks in London, are shared to a considerable degree by the publics in several predominantly Muslim nations surveyed.
Anti-Americanism in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which surged as a result of the U.S. war in Iraq, shows modest signs of abating. But the United States remains broadly disliked in most countries surveyed, and the opinion of the American people is not as positive as it once was.
A review of Pew Global Attitudes Project findings
A year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished. Opinion of the United States in France and Germany is at least as negative now as at the war’s conclusion, and British views are decidedly more critical. Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America’s credibility abroad. Doubts about the motives behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism abound, and a growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States. Across Europe, there is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States.
Recent Commentary by Andrew Kohut
Remarks of Andrew Kohut to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing
Overview Global Gloom and Growing Anti-Americanism Despite an initial outpouring of public sympathy for America following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, discontent with the United States has grown around the world over the past two years. Images of the U.S. have been tarnished in all types of nations: among longtime NATO allies, in developing […]
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Pew Research Center and several other major survey organizations have conducted a number of international polls. These surveys have been illuminating, showing a vast opinion gulf between the American public and people elsewhere. Yet they also reveal, surprisingly, the ways in which the United States is admired around […]
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