Israel, United States More Unpopular than Russia

Yesterday the BBC released the results of the latest GlobeScan International Policy Attitudes survey, which asks respondents to rate countries according to whether they have a negative or positive impact on the world. The most unpopular countries are the following:

1. Israel (56% negative) 2. Iran (54% negative) 3. United States (51% negative) 4. North Korea (48% negative) 5. Russia (40% negative)

The most positively viewed were Canada and Japan. According to Kommersant, Steven Kull, the director of PIPA, commented that “people around the world negatively assess countries that are noted for their use of military force. The list of such countries includes Israel and the United States, who recently employed military force, and North Korea and Iran, who are seen as countries that are developing nuclear weapons.” Clearly all of the countries in the bottom five should get to work to improve their images.