After three years of steadily declining ratings, global perception of the United States as a positive influence in the world appears to have improved marginally during 2007, according to a survey of 23 countries released by the BBC on Wednesday. The poll of some 17,500 respondents, carried out at the end of last year, found that “mainly positive” views of the US rose on average four points, from 31 per cent to 35 per cent, compared to the last BBC survey taken in late 2006.

Negative views of Washington’s influence also fell from 52 per cent in 2006 to 47 per cent by the end of 2007 — placing it fourth in the list of the world’s most negatively viewed countries ahead of Iran (54 per cent negative), Israel (52 per cent), and Pakistan (50 per cent). Most positively viewed on the list of 13 countries and the EU about which respondents were asked to give their opinion were Germany and Japan, whose influence on the world was assessed as “mainly positive” by 56 per cent of all respondents. They were followed by the EU itself (52 per cent positive), and France and Britain (50 per cent).

The 23 countries surveyed in the poll included all five Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, as well as the US, Mexico, and Canada in North America; and Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in South America. Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria were polled in sub-Saharan Africa, while European countries included Britain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and Spain. Also included were Australia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, and the UAE. While respondents were not asked about why their perceptions about US may have changed, observers speculated that the Bush administration’s relatively greater emphasis on diplomacy over military action in its second term may have been a contributing factor, particularly with respect to South Korea and Europe.

“People underestimate the extent to which Bush did an about-face when he started his second term and began pursuing a foreign policy something between the neo-conservatism of term one and the liberal internationalism of his predecessors,” said Charles Kupchan, an international relations expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“He got credit for that pretty quickly among foreign governments, but public opinion lagged behind. What we’re seeing now is the trickle down from the elites to ordinary people,” he noted, adding that a nuclear deal with North Korea and the disappearance of Iraq from the front pages of the newspapers have helped improve US image.

Democratic victory in the mid-term elections in November 2006 and the anticipation of a change in administration later this year may also have played an important role, according to PIPA director Steven Kull. “It may be that as the US approaches a new presidential election, views of the US are being mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from the foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world,” said Steven Kull, PIPA’s director. — IPS