Since 2000, the United States' standing has deteriorated in all parts of the world, and anti-Americanism has grown intense. The 2008 Pew Global Attitudes survey reveals that in the past eight years, favorable views of the United States fell from 78 percent to 30 percent in Germany, 50 percent to 22 percent in Argentina and 75 percent to 37 percent in Indonesia. Yet as bad as this looks, America's image problem can still be healed—if the next administration correctly diagnoses the problem.
The discord actually dates from the end of the cold war, when Washington thoughtlessly disengaged from the world. After whipping up the Islamist mujahedin into a frenzy to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the United States walked away from them once the communists were defeated—without thinking about the consequences. This oversight led directly to 9/11. Other allies like Pakistan were also dropped, and today Pakistan is a nuclear-armed—and deeply troubled—state.
This brings us to another key point: the need for multilateralism. The Bush administration got things badly wrong by acting as if U.S. security could be enhanced by demolishing or ignoring key agreements, like the Kyoto accords or the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Yet this radical unilateralism only endangered the United States, by undermining the strong global consensus that restrains regimes like North Korea. While Americans like to show off their toughness by mocking multilateralism, strategic thinking shows that the United States is well served by strengthening, not undermining, international cooperation.
All this suggests that the first step to fixing America's image problem will be for Washington to acknowledge that, despite its power, the United States is not invulnerable. If it's going to thrive in today's interconnected world, it needs new habits of cooperation based on a healthy respect for the interests of everyone else.
Yeah, this is an interesting article. Alot of people seem to think "who cares what so-and-so thinks of us?". But it does matter--when this anti-Americanism gets out of control, terrorist activity increases and it's easier for organizations like Al-Qaeda to recruit.
Pink Slip
Have we ever done any different? The idea that we would stay engaged in the world once we acheived our goal (winning WW II, dismantling the Soviet Union, and whatever our new goal is now) would go against human nature, I think. As long as we were engaged agains the Soviet Union we looked at our relations in that light. I was sent to northern Ethiopia by the Army when I was a teenager to be part of our signal intelligence operations there. We worried about what the Reds would do to gain allies there, and we tried to counter their efforts. We did not love our "allies" there (if anything, we were condescending to them). The rest of the world is quite aware of "the ugly American". For every American who provides a good image of our country there is another who boozes and whores with their women. It's the American way.
Old South End Broadway
Our air is cleaner than ever, and far cleaner than those countries.
Obama talks about decreasing nuclear stockpiles
Well, maybe we'll get on track yet with Kyoto and the test ban treaty. But, more important, the winding down of the Iraq War and an official repudiation of Guantanamo and torture would go a long way toward placating some of our critics... maybe with a few war crimes indictments thrown in. Also, with Condi Rice out and someone more effective in, maybe we can actually get something resolved in the Palestine area. Awww, that's just wishful thinking.
The reason this doesn't bother me is when faced with a threat all of these countries would turn to us in a heartbeat and do when faced with their own problems.
Likewise I believe we need to promote our own self sustainment and reliance especially when it comes to our own security and this supports that need.
What the article doesn't talk about is how we are revered in countries where we supported and fought for their independence. In the former Soviet states and Kuwait we are very popular and these are areas surrounded by "America haters"
What I do have a problem with is this sentence... "After whipping up the Islamist mujahedin into a frenzy to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the United States walked away from them once the communists were defeated—without thinking about the consequences. This oversight led directly to 9/11."
What it neglects is that after the 1980's Afghanistan fell into civil war. The US stepped out to allow the country a chance to decide it's own fate. And the reason Al Qaeda is hostle to the US isn't because we pulled out of Afghanistan it's because WE INTERVENED ON BEHALF OF KUWAIT and because we ARE NOT ISLAMIC.
MikeyA
When the US walked away from Afghanistan in the 1980s we left without fanfare, which was a mistake. We were in a position to build better relations with Afghanistan and failed to do so.
Aiding Kuwait was a double edged sword, which should not come as a huge surprise. MikeyA's final comment drills the nail squarely into the plywood: We are not Islamic. Tolerating Islam by way of freedom of religion is not nearly good enough. We must be an Islamic nation and be in complete accord with whatever the Mullahs in whereeverStan are preaching this week.
Mad Jack
Mad Jack's Shack
Don't forget that our bases in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries are another big reason for the hatred. "We knew we needed to get out of Saudi Arabia, that was one of the contentions of Osama bin Laden."