Despite ‘Engagement’, the World Views U.S. Less Favorably on Obama’s Watch

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CNSnews:

(CNSNews.com) – Favorable views of the United States have fallen in a number of countries around the world since 2009, despite the Obama administration’s repeated assertions that its international engagement – including paying United Nations contributions on time and in full – has “restored confidence” in American global leadership.

One of the numerous findings in this year’s Pew Global Attitudes Project report – a survey of 26,210 people in 21 countries – relates to respondents’ views of the United States as a nation, as opposed to their opinions of President Obama specifically.

In 14 countries across the globe where Pew asked the question both in 2009 and again this year, U.S. favorable ratings dropped in nine countries and only rose in four. The fourteenth country, Spain, remained the same at 58 percentage points.

Countries where favorable views declined between 2009 and 2012 are located in every region – the Muslim-Arab world, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Western Hemisphere. They are Jordan (down 13 points to 12), Mexico (down 13 points to 56), Germany (down 12 points to 52), Britain (down nine points to 60), Egypt (down eight points to 19), Lebanon (down seven points to 48), France (down six points to 69), Pakistan (down four points to 12) and China (down four points to 43).

The four countries where U.S. favorability ratings rose between the time Obama took office and now are Japan (up 13 points to 72), Russia (up eight points to 52), Poland (up two points to 69) and Turkey (up one point to 15).

The Pew survey found that even where U.S. favorability ratings have dropped under Obama, they are still higher than they were in 2008, the final year of the George W. Bush administration, in most of those 14 countries. (The exceptions were Islamic countries: In Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, U.S. favorable ratings are lower in 2012 than they were in 2008, by between three and seven points each.)

But the Obama administration came into office pledging a new era of engagement, designed to improve America’s standing in the world after what it characterized as Bush administration unilateralism and disdain for the international community.

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Hillary Clinton Rates Higher at Home Than Abroad in Global Opinion Survey

 

(CNSNews.com) – She’s one of the most well-traveled American secretaries of state in history, but Hillary Clinton does not inspire confidence everywhere, including in some countries she has visited multiple times since taking up the post in February 2009.

Clinton is, however, highly regarded at home, with 75 percent of Americans confident that she will “do the right thing regarding world affairs,” according to a Pew Global Attitudes Project report released Wednesday.

The report said that view is held by 92 percent of Democrats surveyed, 62 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents – figures that will delight those favoring a Clinton White House bid in 2016.

Elsewhere in the survey, which polled more than 26,000 people in 21 countries, the reviews were mixed, however.

More respondents expressed no confidence that Clinton would do the right thing in world affairs than took the opposite view in Greece (where 83 percent of respondents said they had no confidence in her), Jordan (74 percent), Lebanon (68), Turkey (68), Egypt (65), Tunisia (57), Spain (55), Mexico (43), China (39), Russia (38) and Pakistan (37).

Clinton received her best ratings in Japan (71 percent expressing confidence), the Czech Republic (70), Germany (69), France (69), Britain (63), Poland (54), Italy (50) and Brazil (49).

 

 

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hillary-clinton-rates-higher-home-abroad-global-opinion-survey