Two reporters from abroad have separately noticed and reported that certain issues and regions have been neglected in the US presidential campaign. First, Jonathan Marcus, a BBC News diplomatic correspondent, reported last week that “US campaign bypasses foreign policy:” “At the outset of this presidential race it looked as though foreign policy would be one of the […]
NPR's “All Things Considered” program ran a segment on Indonesian opinion of Barack Obama this week. Obama attended grade school in Jakarta, so one would expect Indonesia to be a bit of a”blue state.” (Obama's third-grade classroom at Public School No. 1. — Michael Sullivan/NPR) Here's what NPR reports: “Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority […]
It comes as no surprise that the United States is leaving Grosvenor Square, the historic park in the heart of London that was home to the U.S. embassy since 1938. This is part of a regrettable trend, in which the State Department builds drab, fortress embassies on the outskirts of foreign capitals, leaving American diplomats […]
The Washington-based non-profits Search for Common Ground and the Consensus Building Institute have produced a major new leadership group report on improving U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Titled “Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World,” the two groups released the report last month to a packed house at the […]
From the Pew Global Attitudes Project: “Trickle-Down Global Economics: World Already Saw U.S. Influence as Negative Around the globe, people are anxiously following the U.S. financial crisis as it evolves into a worldwide meltdown. People nearly everywhere realize that what happens in the American economy can have a big impact on them. But even before […]
I couldn't pass up posting this AFP article reported today: “Afghanistan, Pakistan split over US presidential hopefuls From Pakistani tribesmen to violence-weary Afghans there are hopes but few expectations, on the frontline of the “war on terror”, that the next US president can solve the problem of Islamic militancy. US military incursions in Pakistan have made […]
Last February, I wrote a post entitled “The Whole World is Watching,” using the slogan from the street protests outside the 1968 Democratic Convention to try to convey how intently the world was now watching the 2008 Election campaign. In 1968, it was rather fanciful to think that the “whole world” was following closely what […]
A while back I addressed a popular reaction to Senator Barack Obama's broad popularity outside the US: why does it matter what the world thinks? Here are two perspectives from foreign Obama-supporters themselves. British columnist Jonathan Freeland sent Americans an ominous warning in an opinion piece published by the UK's Guardian newspaper, titled: “The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it […]
The folks at PBS’ “Frontline/World,” a national public TV series that focusing on global issues, have been producing material that is highly relevant to this blog's scope. Their “The World is Watching” series investigates global views of the US presidential election. For example, the site features reporting on the US elections in Afghanistan: “The elections are a […]
The Guardian reports from Brazil: “Welcome to Obama-mania, Brazil-style. Few countries have embraced the idea of the US's first black president as enthusiastically as Brazil, a country with one of the largest Afro-descendant populations on Earth yet where black faces remain a minority in politics. Obama T-shirts are everywhere while chat shows and newspaper columns […]
An international poll released last week shows that there is no consensus outside the United States about who was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. From the press release: “A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 17 nations finds that majorities in only nine of them believe that al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 terrorist […]
A poll released yesterday by the German Marshall Fund basically echos one released the previous day, and, for that matter, echoes most other polls conducted on the subject of world views on the Presidential candidates. From the press release: “A survey released today shows that nearly half of Europeans (47%) believe that relations between the […]
A new poll published yesterday by the BBC World Service, GlobeScan and the Program on International Policy Attitudes asked publics in 22 countries three key questions about the US Presidential election. First, who do you prefer be the next US President, McCain or Obama? Second, what effect do you think each candidate's eventual Presidency have […]
Following up on my recent post investigating Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience, the Washington Post reports the Republican vice presidential candidate is getting some training from her fellow GOP, and Independent colleagues: “Lieberman, who was the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee but is now an independent, has helped introduce Palin to officials of the American […]
(Jim Wilson/The New York Times) This week two public radio shows delivered interesting segments on global views of the Republican ticket. On NPR this morning, Michael Sullivan reported on how McCain has found support from an unexpected foreign source: “Republican presidential hopeful John McCain spent years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. You might […]