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Nawaz Offers Views on Changing Pakistani Perceptions of U.S.
Shuja Nawaz, Director of the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, was interviewed on The Takeaway morning radio news program on the Pakistan flood situation. The discussion focused on the U.S. being the single largest donor of aid, and the potential for Pakistanis to shift their perceptions of America. However, Nawaz warns of the long-term effects of America's goodwill, stating that "changing image takes a long time."
South Asia Center's Shikha Bhatnagar Spotlighted
Shikha Bhatnagar's recent appointment as Associate Director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, is yet another manifestation of a growing trend of second generation Indian Americans' advent into leading Washington, DC think tanks as senior policy analysts and associates.
Chuck Hagel Discusses START Ratification on RussiaToday
Atlantic Council Chairman Chuck Hagel was interviewed for RussiaToday on delays in ratification of the START treaty in both the U.S. and Russia.
FEATURED ISSUE
In August the sunny calm and quiet that is a Swedish summer will be shattered by the impact of Joint Direct Attack Munitions dropped by F-16CM Fighting Falcons from US Air Force Europe.
Poll: Russia Reset and EU Future
James Joyner | March 04, 2009
Our most recent poll on efforts to "push the reset button" on relations with Russia shows substantially more optimism among Europeans than Americans.
While more than two-thirds of Americans thought the efforts would "prove largely futile," Europeans were essentially evenly split, with 48 percent thinking it would "greatly improve cooperation with Moscow."
This is somewhat surprising. Recent polls show that Americans overwhelmingly approve of President Obama's job performance. It stands at 60 percent, which is more than twice what President Bush left office with. Yet, on one of his most important foreign policy initiatives, skepticism is profound — more than double the percentage of Americans who disapprove of Obama. And, certainly, there's no reason to think that participants in an Atlantic Council poll are disproportionately Obama critics.
Nor are Europeans generally more Pollyannish on these matters. European respondents to our poll on Sarkozy's tenure as EU president, for example, were decidedly more sour than their counterparts on this side of the Atlantic.
Perhaps it's just that Americans are relatively apathetic on foreign policy matters, especially those not involving the two wars we're currently fighting. Or, perhaps, Americans are more likely to see conflict as the natural state of affairs, as was the case in our poll on the impact of the Mumbai attacks on Pakistan-India relations.
Our new poll asks, "How will the global financial crisis impact the goal of a united Europe?" The choices:
- Negatively: EU members will put their own interests ahead of Europe
- Positively: EU members will band together for the common good
- Minimally: There will be little long term effect
Please take the survey and participate in the comment section discussion.
James Joyner is managing editor of the Atlantic Council.
Comments
One of the reasons for the trans-Atlantic divergence on the Russia/reset question may be that some Europeans interpret "reset" to mean the U.S. backs away from support of some of the initiatives that have irritated Moscow (missile shield, expansion of NATO, etc.) while most of the American respondents don't expect any major shifts in U.S. policy and therefore no improvement in ties. After all, the president when in the Senate did vote for legislation that makes it official U.S. policy to seek Georgian and Ukrainian membership in NATO. Some of the backtracking or "clarifications" we have seen since Tuesday's reporting on the Obama letter to Medvedev may also reflect the administration's desire not to be seen as "caving in" to the Kremlin.
A good observation, Nick. And the Americans are likely more perceptive on this one, as I expect very little substantive policy change on Russia from the administration.
Indeed, Americans will be satisfied only with abject Russian submission, like we got under Yeltsin, and know we're not gonna get it while Medvedev and Putin are running the show in Russia.
That's why the US foreign policy elite hates Medvedev aand Putin so much.
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