As the annual United Nations General Assembly begins on September20, the global attitudes toward the world’s leading multilateral organization are largely positive. About 65 per cent of the people across 19 advanced economies have a favourable view of the UN.
The findings comes up in a new survey done by PEW Research Centre . It said that majorities in 16 of the surveyed nations gave the UN a favourable rating. Poland, South Korea and Sweden saw high rating where eight-in-ten or more hold this view. Meanwhile, Greece, Japan and Israel are the three countries where fewer than half of adults see the UN favourably.
IDEOLOGICAL LINES
In the United States, the PEW Research Centre sad that UN gets generally favourable reviews, with 61% of Americans offering a positive opinion. However, it also points out that sharp differences along ideological lines. Eight-in-ten liberals rate the organization favourably, while just four-in-ten conservatives say the same.
Though the US has the largest ideological divide among the countries in the survey, significant ideological differences exist in other nations, the study said.
It said that UN is not very popular among any ideological groups in Israel, but it is especially unpopular on the right. Among Israelis who place themselves on the ideological right, just 16% see the United Nations favourably. Significant gaps between the left and right are also found in Canada, Hungary, Australia, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Poland.
However, the report said that Greece is the only country where the pattern is reversed. Half of Greeks on the political right and 49% of those in the centre see the UN favourably, while just 32% of those on the left agree.
It also mentioned that supporters of right-wing populist parties in several European countries are especially likely to express a negative opinion of the UN. For instance, it said that 44% of Germans with a favourable view of Alternative for Germany (AfD) have an unfavourable opinion of the UN, compared with 21% of Germans who do not support AfD.
AGE
There are also significant differences by age in eight of the countries surveyed, with those ages 18 to 29 expressing particularly positive views about the UN.
ASIA/PACIFIC
Opinion of the UN in the Asia-Pacific region is generally more positive than negative. Majorities in South Korea, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore give the UN favourable ratings. Opinion is somewhat more negative in Japan: 48% express a negative view, compared with 40% who express a positive one. Still, this represents an overall improvement in Japanese opinion of the UN, which reached an all-time low of 29% favourable in the summer of 2020.
