A Message From the World to Obama

One piece of good news revealed by the recently published Global Attitudes Project by the Pew Research Center is that Barack Obama remains very popular abroad. Another is that the image of the United States is still better than it was at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency.

The bad part is that, according to the survey, relations with Muslim countries are not going in the desired direction, and the initial confidence that Obama’s memorable speech in Cairo provoked has been disappearing. The poll also found that the complex and important relationship between the United States and Mexico has deteriorated enormously since the passing of the law in Arizona that, in the eyes of Mexicans, was drawn up to persecute their compatriots. What we have to ask is whether the criticism is justified and whether Obama has the ability to resolve the problems that the complaints point out to him.

Starting with the positive, it is important to point out that the favorable perceptions of Obama and the United States are not products of excessive optimism of the citizens in the 22 countries where the survey was conducted. On the contrary, only around a third of the public in these countries think things are not going too badly, while the rest say they are worried or very worried about the future. At the same time, showing a huge sense of responsibility, citizens in the vast majority of these countries point to their respective governments, rather than United States, as being directly responsible for their respective crises.

In most of the 22 countries where the survey was carried out, and above all in the most developed ones, a large part of the 24,000 people polled approve of the manner in which the president has managed the global economic crisis and some of his politics with global reach, for example, the necessity to deal with global warming. In almost all of the countries, the majority recognizes Obama’s work in foreign policy.

The work that the Pew Center has already been doing for 9 years conducting this global survey permits us to make comparisons that convincingly clarify the fluctuations in worldwide public opinion on themes like the image of the United States in the eyes of the world.

Consider, for example, that in 2007 31 percent of Germans, 34 percent of Spaniards, 9 percent of Turks, 34 percent of Chinese, 41 percent of Russians, 21 percent of Egyptians and 16 percent of Argentinians had a good image of the United States. Compare that with the results from 2010, which showed that 63 percent of Germans, 61 percent of Spaniards, 17 percent of Turks, 58 percent of Chinese, 57 percent of Russians, 17 percent of Egyptians and 42 percent of Argentinians had a better impression of the country.

The comparison also permits us to see clearly that, even if the image of the United States in Muslim countries improved when Obama took power in 2009, the trend has not sustained itself. In Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria, a good part of the people think that the United States is still thinking unilaterally in making its politics, and are convinced that the U.S. continues to be partial to Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Given the circumstances, I think Obama’s options to overcome the problems in the Middle East and Mexico are very limited. One could argue that, far from trying to act unilaterally on matters of global interest, he has always looked for international consensus. With respect to the accusation of partiality toward Israel, one could also reply that, during his term, he has looked so much for parity between the principal players that Israel-U.S. relations are now in one of their worst moments.

Mexico’s case is also extremely complicated because the topic of immigration became intensely politicized in the year of the elections, and today there is not even a hint of consensus. Without a doubt, I agree with Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum: “The president needs to clarify his position proceeding with his lawsuit against the State of Arizona because their law took away federal authority and brought about discrimination against American citizens and immigrants.”*

*Translator’s Note: Original quotation could not be verified.