MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

WorldPublicOpinion.ORG (WPO) conducted between July 15 and September 26, 2008 a global poll in 21 nations. The poll covered a random sample of (21'618) respondents, representing the most of the world's largest nations – China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia – as well as Argentina, Mexico, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kenya, Thailand, and Ukraine. The nations polled represent 61% of the world population. Margins of error range from approximately +/-2 to 4%. Not all questions were asked in all nations.

Asked to assess the morality of their country's foreign policy, in 19 out of 21 countries the most common answer is that their country is about average or even below average. So the somewhat modest Palestinians, who assess the morality of their own nation's foreign policy at 35% above average, 38% about average and 22% below average. They give their most negative ratings to the US, (61%) below average, and to Britain, (57%) below average, whilst they express the most positive rating about the morality of China's foreign policy, which is assessed at 20% above average, 41% average and 36% below average.

Regarding the Palestinians' assessment of Russia's and France morality in the foreign policy, it's predominantly positive with 16% and 15% above average respectively.

In the United States, about half (49%) say the morality of US foreign policy is average with another 16 percent saying it is below average. Just 24 percent say it is above average.

Among Russians, 51 percent say the morality of their foreign policy is average, while 5 percent say it is inferior. Twenty-seven percent say it is superior.

In China, a relatively large 38 percent say their foreign policy is morally superior, but more say that it is either average (36%) or below average (8%).

The British are the most skeptical among the major powers, with more saying their country is below average (23%), than above average (17%), though most say it is average (49%).

France has the largest percentage of all nations polled saying that France is average (66%), while slightly more say it is above average (19%) than below average (13%).

Across all countries, the most common answer is that their country’s foreign policy is about average, with 41 percent giving this response. The view that their country is above average is only slightly higher than the view that it is below average—24 percent said it is above average, whilst 21 percent said it is below average.

“People around the world may actually be more realistic than is often assumed,” comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, a collaborative project of research centers around the world.

In just two countries do more people say that their country is above average than say it is average or below average—but even here less than half are so self-confident. The highest number is found in Jordan, where 44 percent say that their country is above average, In India 40 percent give their country above average ratings. On the other hand, two countries give their country predominantly poor ratings. In Mexico 54 percent say the morality of their foreign policy is below average, as does a plurality of Argentines (39%).

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