US Cannot Be Trusted to Act Responsibly: Global Poll

CHICAGO, 19 April 2007 — There is widespread global concern that the United States cannot be trusted to act responsibly in the world, according to a multinational poll released here yesterday.

But while there is broad international frustration with how the United States conducts its foreign policy, few people around the world want the United States to completely back off from its role as a global policeman, the poll found.

“There’s clearly a trend in terms of deepening negative attitudes to the US in how it executes foreign policy,” said Christopher Whitney, executive director for studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs which helped coordinate the 18-country study.

The US has long faced criticism internationally for its interventionist foreign policy, Whitney said. This survey found that the frustration is broader in scope than previously thought and has deepened in the wake of the war in Iraq. But mixed with this frustration is an understanding that the US has a significant role to play internationally and should not withdraw completely, Whitney said.

The most stark results were those showing a lack of trust that the United States would act responsibly and a sense that it had overreached on the global stage. A majority of respondents in Argentina (84 percent), Peru (80 percent), Russia (73 percent) France (72 percent), Armenia (58 percent), Indonesia (64 percent), China (59 percent), Thailand (56 percent), South Korea (53 percent) and India (52 percent) and more than a third of those in Australia (40 percent) and Ukraine (37 percent) answered “not at all” or “not very much” when asked how much they trusted the US “to act responsibly in the world,” the poll found.

The Philippines and Israel proved the staunchest supporters with 85 percent and 81 percent of respondents, respectively, saying they trusted the US either a “great deal” or “somewhat,” followed by Australia at 59 percent and Poland at 51 percent. More than three out of four Americans think their country tends to take on the role of international enforcer more than it should. Large majorities elsewhere also felt that way: France at 89 percent, Australia at 80 percent, China at 77 percent, Russia at 76 percent.