Bush's exit helps U.S. image abroad, survey shows

PARIS: There is good news and bad news for President George W. Bush as he pursues his valedictory tour of Europe this week, according to a new worldwide study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

On the one hand, the image of the United States has improved slightly in many countries over the past year. On the other, the new optimism appears to be driven largely by the fact that Bush will soon be leaving office.

In addition, while the prospect of Bush's departure and the excitement of the U.S. primary contest have helped the image of the United States, a worldwide surge in concern about slumping economic conditions and a widespread view that the U.S. economy is harming local economies may tarnish it.

Survey respondents also tend to see the United States as the main offender in global warming, Pew said.

"There has been no sea change in world views of the United States," Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said of the results, which were issued Thursday. "Europeans are still much more negative than they were at the beginning of the decade, and highly negative views prevail in the Muslim world. But there are some indications that the world sees the possibility of change with the prospect of a new president."

The 24-nation survey, which was conducted in March and April, shows that many people who have been following the U.S. presidential race expect U.S. foreign policy to improve when Bush leaves the White House in January.

It also shows that publics worldwide have greater confidence in Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, than in his Republican rival, John McCain, "to do the right thing regarding world affairs." This feeling is strongest in Europe, Australia and Japan, as well as in Tanzania, which borders Kenya, the homeland of Obama's father.

But for the moment the image of the United States remains largely negative, hurt by the war in Iraq and the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Pessimism about the future of Iraq has deepened over the past two years, and most people surveyed want the United States and NATO to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the survey confirmed, people worldwide acknowledge the ascendancy of China. Many people - including 3 out of 10 Americans - think that China will eventually replace the United States as the world's leading superpower, although no timeframe was specified.

But people are also critical of China, according to the poll, which was conducted shortly after civil unrest broke out in Tibet this spring. Overall favorableness ratings have slipped over the past year; China is seen by many as ignoring the interests of other countries and is faulted for its record on the environment and human rights.

The survey of 24,717 people is the seventh major study conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project since 2002, Bush's second year in office, when the image of the United States was far more positive, buoyed by world sympathy following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Favorable views of America plummeted the next year with the invasion of Iraq, and in many countries - including close allies like Britain and Germany - opinions declined further in the ensuing years. This year, however, there is a significant uptick in positive views of the United States in 10 of the 21 countries for which comparative data are available.

In Poland, for example, favorable views dropped to 61 percent last year from 79 percent in 2002, but this year they bounced back to 68 percent. In Indonesia, a mostly Muslim nation, positive views plunged to 15 percent in 2003 from 61 percent in 2002, but they have now rebounded to 37 percent. In other countries like France, Britain and Turkey, favorable views edged up this year, but by less than four percentage points.

Despite the upward trend, there are still just eight survey countries in which majorities now have a favorable view of the United States: Britain, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Tanzania.

In fact, in one-third of the survey countries, more respondents see the United States as an enemy than as a partner. This view is especially strong in Turkey, a longtime U.S. ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and in Pakistan, a partner of the United States in its "war on terror."

And while majorities in all countries surveyed see the United States influencing affairs in their country, many see this as a bad thing - more than half of respondents in Turkey, Jordan, Argentina and, again, Britain, with which the United States theoretically enjoys a "special relationship."

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