MELISSA BLOCK, host:
America's standing in world public opinion has sharply declined in the last year, gone from bad to worse. That's the finding of a new international poll carried out for the BBC World Service over the last two months.
Just 29 percent of people interviewed in 18 countries that were previously polled said the U.S. is playing a mainly positive role in the world. That's a seven percent drop from last year.
Steven Kull co-designed the poll. He's director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. Thanks for coming in.
Mr. STEVEN KULL (International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland): My pleasure.
BLOCK: Your poll look at 26,000 people, countries from Argentina to China, Germany to Indonesia and the United States. And the strongest disapproval that you registered was when people were asked about U.S. handling of the war in Iraq.
Mr. KULL: That's right. Seventy-three percent on average disapproved of the way the U.S. is handling the situation in Iraq.
BLOCK: And on the question of Iran's nuclear program, what were the numbers there?
Mr. KULL: Sixty percent disapproved of the U.S. handling of the situation with Iran.
BLOCK: You asked about whether U.S. troops in the Middle East are a stabilizing force. And what were the results for that question?
Mr. KULL: Yes. We asked whether the U.S. military presence in the Middle East is a stabilizing force or provokes more conflict than it prevents. And overall, 68 percent said that it provokes more conflict than it prevents.
BLOCK: Let's look at one more issue that you asked people about and that is the U.S. role in handling global warming or climate change. What did you find there?
Mr. KULL: Yes. That's another area. On average, 56 percent disapproved of the way the U.S. is handling the situation with global warming. And when we analyzed what were the factors that were contributing to this overall negative view of the U.S. influence in the world, of these six areas that we explored, the biggest was Iraq. And the second biggest was global warming.
BLOCK: When you look at the results from the people you polled in the United States, did they pretty much mesh with what you were finding around the world or were there some disjunctures there?
Mr. KULL: No. You have 57 percent of Americans who say that the U.S. is primarily having a positive influence in the world. But you do have clear majorities that disapprove of the way the U.S. is handling the situation in Iraq and also in regards to global warming.
BLOCK: Where did you see the biggest decline in approval or positive ratings for the U.S.? Which countries showed the biggest slip?
Mr. KULL: Well, the ones that really stand out are Poland, Indonesia, India. Poland is one where, that dropped 24 points. This is a country that has been very consistently for some years now expressing positive views of the U.S. And in the last year, positive attitudes dropped from 62 percent down to 38 percent. There is also a sharp drop among Indonesians that might be kind of weary and off of the effect of the tsunami aid.
BLOCK: I guess if you're looking for good news for the United States in this poll, you'll find it in two countries, Nigeria and the Philippines.
Mr. KULL: That's right, in Kenya. In Africa, in general, there tends to be a fairly positive attitude towards the United States. This seems to be related to perception that U.S. investment there is a positive thing and also, U.S. aid programs.
BLOCK: What do you think the lesson is as you look at these numbers, you've been doing these polls now for three years and seeing a steady decline, what do you take away from that?
Mr. KULL: What I see in these numbers is how much the frustration with the U.S. has a flipside that is basically, in a sense, affirmative. People around the world have a positive view of the values that the United States has tried to promote. So when people see the United States as departing from those principles, they get very frustrated, they have these very negative feelings with the U.S.
Now when people say that the U.S. is being hypocritical, they're implicitly saying that the U.S. should be acting the way it says it's trying to act. And it also suggests that there is an underlying bedrock of good will toward the U.S. that the U.S. can ultimately return to.
BLOCK: Steven Kull, thanks very much for coming in.
Mr. KULL: You're welcome.
BLOCK: That's Steven Kull. He's editor of worldpublicopinion.org. And he co-designed the poll conducted for the BBC World Service.
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