Opinions about the United States and its place in global affairs have rebounded, and global support for the United States is high under President Joe Biden, who has emphasized his willingness to once again make the United States a valuable and trustworthy actor on the global stage U-turn after several years of broken international relations under former President Donald Trump.
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center Based on data from nationally representative surveys of more than 16,000 adults in 16 advanced economies conducted by telephone from March to May, 75% of respondents are confident that Biden is “doing the right thing about world events,” compared with 17% for Trump last year.
The poll also shows that the United States is once again at the best of mercy in the world; 62% of respondents said they had a positive attitude towards the United States, compared to 34% at the end of Trump’s tenure.
“In France, for example, only 31% said they were positive about the US last year, in line with poor ratings in March 2003 at the height of US-France tensions over the Iraq war,” says Pew. This year, 65% see the US positively and are nearing the high ratings that marked the Obama era. Improvements of 25 percentage points or more can also be found in Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada. “
Pew notes that “Attitudes towards the US vary considerably among the surveyed citizens. ”For example, only about half of the respondents in Singapore and Australia said they had a positive opinion of the US; in New Zealand this figure is even lower (42%).
Yet many nations are critical of US foreign policy.
“Although Biden’s more multilateral approach to foreign policy is welcomed, there is still a widespread perception that the US is primarily pursuing its own interests in world affairs,” the Pew report said. “More than half of most respondents say that the US does not take their interests into account when making foreign policy decisions, even though the opinion is less in Japan, Greece and Germany.”
The report (which you can read in full HERE) comes when President Biden embarks on his first trip abroad since taking office.
In one (n op-ed Published in the Washington Post on Sunday, Biden said of his trip “It’s about realizing America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners, and demonstrating the ability of democracies to both meet and stave off the challenges of this new age.”
“Whether it is ending the Covid-19 pandemic everywhere, meeting the demands of an accelerating climate crisis, or countering the harmful activities of the governments of China and Russia, the United States must lead the world from a position of strength, ” he wrote. “… And as America’s economic recovery helps boost the global economy, we will be stronger and more productive when we are flanked by nations that share our values and our vision for the future – other democracies.”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie from New York.
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