US leadership global ratings improve but Germany still most admired

WASHINGTON: Six months into the Joe Biden administration — just before the Afghanistan debacle — global approval ratings of American leadership rebounded to near 50 per cent, after the lows of around 30 per cent during the Donald Trump Presidency, according to a new Gallup poll released Tuesday.
The Gallup report shows that as of early August 2021, across 46 countries and territories, median approval of the US leadership stood at 49 per cent, matching the rating during former president Barack Obama's first year in office in 2009. Median approval rating of the US leadership had plunged to 30 per cent at the end of Donald Trump's presidency despite his boast of many foreign policy successes, including pulling out US troops from Afghanistan.
Gallup said the Biden ratings may change as it completes its 2021 fieldwork in more countries, particularly in the wake of the late August fiasco in Afghanistan, but added that the "substantial gains across so many countries halfway through 2021 make it unlikely that the final rating for Biden's first year in office could retreat to his predecessor's levels."
The US global leadership is being challenged by China's rapid rise and the enormous investments it is making in many developing and second-world countries, seen in some quarters as exploitative. After rowing back into somewhat of an isolationist America First policy during the brief Trump era, Washington is again engaging the world vigorously.
In the first few hours of his presidency, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accord and reversed Trump's decision to leave the World Health Organization. He also vowed in his first foreign policy speech to repair the US alliances through diplomacy and restore its image across the world, seen to have been damaged by Trump's abrasive approach.
Approval ratings for the US leadership improved the most — by at least 40 points — among several European allies, including Portugal (52), the Netherlands (45), Norway (42) and Sweden (41), even though several European countries also showed high disapproval ratings. Approval ratings rose 38 points in Canada, 36 in Germany, 30 in the United Kingdom, 22 in Italy, 18 in France and 11 points in Japan.
In contrast, approval ratings in Russia slipped five percent. The numbers from India have not yet been processed.
The Gallup poll also measured leadership of other global powers, including Germany, China and Russia, revealing that Germany under departing Chancellor Angela Merkel, not only remained the top-rated global power for the fourth year in a row, but it also broke all previous records. In 2020, median approval of Germany's leadership across 108 countries and territories stood at a record-high 52 per cent.
However the man credited with dragging down the US numbers insists that he was a foreign policy wizard even as he eviscerated traditionalists in the US establishment. On Tuesday, the mercurial former president did not hesitate to criticise former Secretary of State Colin Powell in a strange eulogy following his death.
“Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media,” Trump said in a statement, adding "hope that happens to me someday”. “He was a classic RINO (Republican in Name Only), if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!"