Poll, canada seen favorable; negative: israel, iran, north korea, us

Israel, Iran Seen as Having `Negative Influence,' Poll Shows
March 4, 2007 Sabine Pirone Bloomberg.com: UK

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Most people consider Israel and Iran to have had a mainly negative influence in the world, according to a GlobeScan survey commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corp.'s World Service.

North Korea and the U.S. are also perceived as having a negative influence in the survey of 28,389 people in 27 countries.

Asked to rate 12 of the world's leading states as having a positive or negative influence, Canada, Japan, the European Union and France were judged the most positive, the poll found.

Britain, China and India are viewed more favorably than unfavorably, while Russia was viewed slightly more negatively than positively, the survey showed.

The poll was conducted by GlobeScan together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

It found that people ``tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power,'' Steven Kull, the director of PIPA, as saying.

Israel had the largest number of countries viewing it negatively, with 23 of 27, while Iran was regarded unfavorably in 21 countries, with the U.S. and North Korea in 20.

``Britain, while slipping a bit since 2005, appears to be avoiding the steep decline that its war partner, the U.S., is suffering,'' Doug Miller, GlobeScan president said.


BBC survey: Iran, Israel, U.S. have most negative image worldwide; Canada best
March 5

LONDON (AP) - Israel, Iran and the United States are the countries with the most negative image in a globe-spanning survey of attitudes toward 12 major countries. Canada and Japan came out best in the poll, released Tuesday.

The survey for the British Broadcasting Corp.'s World Service asked more than 28,000 people to rate 12 countries - Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the United States and Venezuela - as having a positive or negative influence on the world.

Israel was viewed negatively by 56 per cent of respondents and positively by 17 per cent; for Iran, the figures were 54 per cent and 18 per cent. The United States had the third-highest negative ranking, with 51 per cent citing it as a bad influence and 30 per cent as a good one. Next was North Korea, which was viewed negatively by 48 per cent and positively by 19 per cent.

Canada had the most positive rating in the survey of 28,389 people in 27 countries, with 54 per cent viewing it positively and 14 per cent negatively. It was followed by Japan and France.

Respondents were also asked their views of the 25-member European Union; 53 per cent saw it as positive and 19 per cent as negative.

Britain, China and India were viewed more positively than negatively, while Russia had more negative than positive responses. Opinion on Venezuela was evenly split.

"It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, which conducted the research along with pollster GlobeScan.

"Countries that relate to the world primarily through soft power, like France and Japan and the EU in general, tend to be viewed positively," he added.

Pollsters questioned about 1,000 people each in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States between Nov. 3 and Jan. 16. The margin of error in each country ranged between plus or minus 3.1 percentage points and plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.