[continued from previous message] 
  
 But then there was still the Cold War to keep America's allies on-side. 
  
 What is striking in this survey is how the US is seen negatively across a 
 range of diverse countries. Indeed, the same policies are, in many cases, 
 even 
 unpopular in the US itself. 
  
 This, then, raises the obvious question. Is it simply the Bush 
 administration's foreign policy or the whole image of America that is 
 unpopular? 
  
 Comparable surveys suggest that there is still strong support around the 
 world for the values enshrined in US society. But it looks as though America 
 itself is seen to be living up to those values less and less. 
  
 As a result, America's soft power - its ability to influence people in other 
 countries by the force of its example and the perceived legitimacy of its 
 policies - is weakening. 
  
 And, in a turbulent, globalising world, where the US is - rightly or wrongly 
 - - associated by many with the disruptive effects of globalisation, soft 
 power 
 matters more than ever. It is a resource that once squandered is very 
 difficult to build up again. 
  
 COMPLEX ISSUES 
  
 At root is the problem of legitimacy. 
  
 Iraq may have dented the utility of America's military machine. But the US 
 remains the world's only superpower in an international system that shows 
 few 
 of 
 the familiar landmarks we have come to associate with past 50-or-so years of 
 international diplomacy. 
  
 Opinion polls, are by their very nature, as snapshot. They ask very few 
 particular questions, and they need to be interpreted with caution. 
  
 Asking, as this survey does, about the US government's handling of, say, 
 Iran's nuclear programme provokes strong levels of disapproval. 
  
 But what does this really mean? Is there any constituency at all for getting 
 tough with Iran? How far is Iran's programme to produce what it alleges to 
 be 
 peaceful civilian nuclear energy perceived as being a problem at all? 
  
 Other opinion polls, asking different questions, suggest that ordinary 
 people 
 in many of America's allies are indeed worried by the suggestion, whether 
 true or not, that Iran might acquire nuclear weapons. 
  
 It is the Bush administration's handling of the issue that is reflected in 
 this BBC poll; not the policy options themselves. These are complex. They 
 depend 
 upon often unavailable intelligence and uncertain assessments of what the 
 Iranian authorities are really about. Perhaps the problem is that the Bush 
 administration has proven unreliable in the past regarding both the 
 intelligence 
 they have and the certainty of their assessments. 
  
 Opinion polls are not terribly useful in charting specific policy options. 
  
 But they do capture a mood and that mood should worry anyone in policy- 
 making 
 circles in Washington, DC 
  
 The US undoubtedly has an "image-problem", and there are worrying signs for 
 the conservative supporters of Mr. Bush that this is having an impact upon 
 his 
 administration's ability to get the policy outcomes that it wants. 
  
 One of the wisest writers on these issues is Joseph S. Nye, now Dean of the 
 John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is in many 
 ways 
 "Mr. Soft Power", having written and theorised about the phenomenon for many 
 years. 
  
 He has long-argued that Americans need to better understand how their 
 policies appear to others. 
  
 "To communicate effectively," he has written, "Americans must first learn to 
 listen." 
  
 This opinion poll, then, represents a powerful argument for those seeking to 
 make the case that Washington should listen more and try to win over its 
 friends as much by persuasion and force of example as by firm actions and 
 tough 
 rhetoric. 
  
 Or, as Abraham Lincoln once said, "We should lead by the force of our 
 example 
 rather than by the example of our force." 
  
 [End of article.] 
  
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