America's Traditional Allies React to Its Influence, Post-Iraq War

The military action led by the U.S. and U.K. that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq could hardly have been more successful, swift, or surgical. This success has not led people in Europe and Canada to rally in support of U.S. foreign policies, however. What it has done is make them wary of the tremendous power the U.S. currently exerts in the world.

Between May 16 and 24, 2003, Ipsos Public Affairs interviewed 7,698 adults in the five largest countries in the European Union (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain), as well as Russia, the U.S., and Canada. We asked respondents to respond to the following questions:

• Do you think the U.S. did the right thing or the wrong thing when it took military action against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq?
• Do you have a very positive, somewhat positive, somewhat negative, or very negative opinion of the role that the president of United States, George W. Bush, plays in the world affairs?
• Please tell me whether you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree: "There is no country or world organization that can stop the U.S. doing whatever it wants in the world today."

Highlights

• Large majorities of people in most countries surveyed feel the U.S. did the wrong thing when it took military action against the former regime in Iraq. Citizens of Great Britain did support the war, however, and opinion is split in Canada and Italy.
• Even larger majorities in most countries surveyed hold a negative opinion of the role that U.S. President George W. Bush plays in world affairs. Even in Great Britain and Canada (as well as Russia), more than 3 in 5 have a negative impression of Bush's foreign policy role. Italian opinion on Bush is split, but opinion is overwhelmingly negative in France, Germany, and Spain.
• From two-thirds to three-fourths of the people in these countries feel there is no country and no organization in the world that can stop the U.S. from doing whatever it wants. U.S. citizens are more modest in their assessment of U.S. hegemony.
• In France, U.K., and Russia, sizeable minorities approaching 1 in 3 citizens say their own country now has little or no influence on international affairs. Half the citizens of Germany and Canada, and majorities in Italy and Spain, agree that their own country has little or no influence in the world today. Almost all citizens in every country surveyed, by contrast, agree with U.S. citizens that the U.S. has a strong influence or some influence in the world.

The Iraq war: was it right or wrong?

Only in Great Britain does a majority believe the U.S. did the right thing when it took military action against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Even in Great Britain, only 58% feel the war was the right thing to do, nowhere near the 76% of Americans who consider it was right. In Germany, Spain, and France, the number who feel the war was wrong outnumber supporters of the war by a 2 to 1 margin or more. In Russia, only 10% think the war was the right thing to do, while 80% of Russians feel it was wrong.

President Bush's foreign policies have few international fans

Favorable opinions about the role U.S. President George W. Bush plays in international affairs are even rarer than is support for the war. Fewer than 1 in 4 adults in France, Spain, Germany and Russia have a positive opinion about Bush's impact on world affairs, with 60% to 80% of adults in each country expressing negative opinions about Bush. In the U.S., by contrast, 72% have a favorable opinion about Bush's handling of his foreign affairs duties.

What is encouraging for the White House about negative views of Bush among adults in other countries, if there is anything encouraging, it is the fact that negative feelings are not firmly held everywhere. There is no country where a majority expresses strong negative feelings toward Bush at this time.

Nothing can stop it now, say most

Negative attitudes about the U.S. and Bush are not likely to dissipate soon, however. Adults in many countries now feel, in the wake of the Iraq war, that there is no country or world organization that can stop the U.S. from doing whatever it wants in the world today. That is an extraordinary statement, and in that belief must surely be buried the seeds of intense resentment of this Administration's foreign policy approach.

Citizens exhibit varying degrees of belief in their own country's influence

In the end, bad feelings about Bush and his role in the world are probably both a product of feelings that the White House does not listen to other points of view before acting, and resentment that it does not need to. At this point, only a few of the surveyed countries--U.K., France, possibly Russia--feel influential. In Canada and Germany, as many feel their country is influential as feel it is not. In Italy and Spain, few feel influential.

Contrast that with the attitudes of Americans, 95% of whom feel their country has influence in the world. What is remarkable--and potentially destabilizing--is the fact that 90% to 95% of the people in each of the other countries surveyed also consider America influential. Indeed, in most countries, more rate the U.S. as strongly influential than believe their own country wields any influence at all. That kind of imbalance of influence cannot persist without engendering resentments, jealousies, and serious problems for U.S. foreign policy.