India Environment Portal Knowledge for change

USA all love lost

• 14/07/2003
• Down To Earth

USA

Neither the World Bank nor the us and the United Nations (un) are popular around the world. While there is still some hope of the World Bank being viewed favourably in the international community, the us drastically needs to do something about its image abroad. These were the findings of two separate Washington-based surveys.

In a survey conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, it was found that the us’ image in the international community has hit rock bottom in the last one year. The survey says that the recent war in Iraq has “widened the rift between Americans and west Europeans, further inflamed the Muslim world, softened support for the war on terrorism and weakened global public support for the pillars of the post-world war era, the un and the North Atlantic alliance.”

The survey also found that an increasing number of countries were losing confidence in the un, especially after it failed to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq problem.

In another survey conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates, it was found that most global opinion leaders thought the World Bank was too arrogant and bureaucratic, especially in Latin America, West Asia and north Africa. On the whole, however, it was found that the Bank’s image was improving. The main complaint against the World Bank was that it was too obliged to the us.