WASHINGTON, DC – US Rep Bill Delahunt, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight Subcommittee, will resume hearings this week examining the impact of the Bush administration’s foreign policies on world opinion towards the United States.

On Wednesday, March 14 at 2:30 in room 2172 Rayburn HOB, Andrew Kohut, the president of the Pew Research Center and the author of a new book, “America Against the World” will testify before the Subcommittee. Kohut and the Pew Center have done extensive research examining the decline in world opinion toward the United States.  His testimony is part of a series Delahunt has organized to inform the Congress and the American people what those living in other countries think about American foreign policies, values, and its people. 

Last week, Delahunt joined with U.S. Representative Elliot Engel, Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, to hear from John Zogby, of Zogby International, a widely respected international polling firm.  Zogby told Delahunt and other members of the panel that the war in Iraq has helped drive Latin American public opinion about the United States to an all-time low. The testimony was given while President Bush was traveling through South America and visiting foreign leaders, amidst widespread protests.

Zogby also pointed out that that surprisingly 86% of Latin America’s business and civic leaders -- or “elites” -- gave an unfavorable rating to what they considered the Bush administration’s “go it alone” approach to conflict in the world.  Zogby indicated that these are people who have typically held more conservative views. He identified the main component of their negative opinion toward the United States as the war in Iraq.  However, he also stated that people in Latin America follow very closely United States policies on immigration and free trade.

Zogby testified that “U.S. policies have angered and alienated not only the general population, but also the elite communities who traditionally are more pro-American.”  He also stated that “to conclude, I would just like to highlight the causal pattern that places these findings into context.  Our work has revealed several trends.  First, the opinion of the United States handling of relations, immigration and world conflicts has fallen over the last few years, as has the ratings of President Bush.  This decline has led to a lower opinion of the American people, the American government and the overall importance of the United States as a regional player.” 

Following Zogby’s testimony, Delahunt commented that “the deterioration of our image in Latin America is disturbing.  This decline in our approval damages our national security by making it harder for Latin American governments to cooperate with us.  The fact that our values and our people continue to receive positive ratings even as our policies are rejected shows that there is disappointment among our friends who perceive that our deeds are failing to match our ideals.”   

Earlier in the week, the oversight panel also heard from Dr. Steven Kull, from the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Editor of Publicopinion.org. Kull presented compelling testimony that showed a significant drop in world opinion of the United States in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion.  He testified to panel members that the unilateral decision to invade Iraq has caused favorable opinions of the United States to drop significantly since 2000 in nearly every country they have polled.  In many cases, public opinion dropped by more than 50%.

Kull noted that “there are a few countries that get a lower rating than the United States.  In a BBC poll we released this morning, Israel, Iran and, by some measures, North Korea received lower ratings. However, the United States is rated far lower than France, Japan, Canada, China, India and Russia.  The good news is that there is an abundance of evidence that the unhappiness with the United States is not a rejection of U.S. values. People around the world say that the problems they have with the U.S. concern its policies not its values.”

To read Congressman Delahunt’s statement from last week’s hearing please click here.

To read John Zogby’s testimony click here.

To review the details of Dr. Steven Kull’s testimony click here.

To watch the hearing with Mr. Zogby's testimony click here.

To watch the hearing with Mr. Kull's testimony click here.

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