U.S. Image in Europe.

Somewhat I just found about this survey that was published last month about transatlantic relationships – a topic highly relevant to the main theme of our Blog. This poll was made in June by Transatlantic Trends which offers a comprehensive annual survey of American and European public opinion. The polling was conducted in the United States and ten European Countries.
Basically, despite Bush’s recent efforts, the European public opinion towards the U.S. remains unchanged. Yet it should be noticed that it is mostly the Bush adminsitration which is criticized . This poll was conducted before Katrina but there is much doubt that the image of the U.S. has changed for the better as a result.

Here are some of the most interesting findings:

Europeans continue to distinguish their feelings about President Bush from their evaluations of the United States taking a leading role in world affairs.

While 72% of Europeans disapprove of the way President Bush is handling international policies, a lower percentage (59%) feel that U.S. global leadership is undesirable (these percentages remain relatively unchanged from 2004). While these numbers are surely more negative than Americans may like, they suggest that Europeans’ negative feelings remain focused on the current administration, not on the United States more generally.

There are some other interesting elements :

Europeans are more likely than Americans to support democracy promotion (EU9 74% to 51%). Both Europeans and Americans strongly prefer “soft power” options to promote democracy, with only 39% of Americans and 32% of Europeans (EU9) who support sending military forces.

And to nobody's surprise, there are clear differences in people's priorities in Europe and in the U.S. :

More Americans than Europeans think they will be personally affected by international terrorism (71% to 53%), while more Europeans see themselves as likely to be personally affected by global warming (73% to 64%).