Public attitudes towards "Brand America" have been dealt a severe blow in the aftermath of the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on 15 August, a survey by US-based political intelligence gathering firm Morning Consult revealed on Thursday.
“Since 14 August, the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban, global data shows that sentiment about the United States has worsened outside the margin of error in seven nations,” states Morning Consult.
The firm said that it interviewed at least 1,133 adults in each of the 14 surveyed countries from 8-14 August and 18-24 August.
One of the steepest declines in US' approval ratings since 14 August has been witnessed in the United Kingdom, a close North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) ally, where people holding "unfavourable views" about the US have increased from 33 (8-14 August) to 39 percent (18-24 August). At the same time, the percentage of polled Brits viewing the US “favourably” dropped from 46 to 42.
Overall, perception towards the US has been affected by 10 percentage points in the UK, says the survey.
In fact, the UK saw the “most significant” drop in America’s public image among all the polled countries except in China, where 77 percent of adults didn’t approve of the US amid its “chaotic troop withdrawal” from Afghanistan. Between 8 and 14 August, the corresponding figure stood at 73 percent. US’ ratings among China's public have suffered a net blow of 11 percent.
Besides the UK, Brand America has also suffered a blow in other NATO-allied nations such as Italy (-9) and Spain (-7). While 29 percent of polled Italians now harbour negative views towards Washington (compared to 24 percent earlier), 54 percent of them still view the US “favourably.” In Spain, 34 percent of adults think of the US in unfavourable terms, a figure which stood at 29 percent until 14 August.
Morning Consult further found that America's image has also been dealt a blow in Japan, where 23 percent of adults now view Washington “unfavourably,” compared to 20 percent who held similar attitudes between 8 and 14 August. Only 53 percent of surveyed Japanese adults now view the US “favourably,” a five percentage point drop since 8-14 August time period.
Tokyo is also a member of NATO as well as the "Quad," a US-led group comprising Australia, Japan, and India and catering to the Indo-Pacific region.
America’s public image in Australia has been slightly affected as well, with 49 percent now viewing Washington as a positive force (50 percent between 8 and 14 August). The percentage of Australians viewing the US critically remains the same at 50.
In India, 10 percent of the survey respondents now see the US “unfavourably,” as compared to 8 percent between 8 and 14 August. The US' image has suffered a net blow of 3 percentage points in the South Asian nation, as per the survey
Meanwhile, 42 percent of polled Russians now view the US “unfavourably,” compared to 38 percent earlier.
Significantly, the global poll has found that the US’ troop withdrawal has improved America’s overall image in the eyes of the Canadian (+4) and French (+7) publics.