Chapter 4 > International Cooperation > Support for Stronger International Institutions, Especially the United Nations

U.S. Report - pdf version Leaders Questionnaire - pdf version Public Questionnaire - pdf version

Support for Stronger International Institutions, Especially the United Nations

Consistent with their support for multilateral approaches to solving international problems, Americans show robust support for stronger international institutions, especially the United Nations.

Most Americans express warm feelings toward the UN. On a thermometer scale, the average response is very warm 64 degrees, giving the UN the top rating among the 12 international organizations and peoples that were asked about (see Figure 4-2), and putting the UN ahead of all 28 individual countries that were rated except for Canada, Great Britain, and Italy (see Figure 6-8). UN Secretary General Kofi Annan receives a warmish average thermometer rating of 53 degrees, about comparable to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (see also Figure 6-8).

A large majority of Americans support a stronger UN. Fifty-seven percent say it should be a very important foreign policy goal to strengthen the UN—up 12 points since 1998 (see Figure 4-3). On another question, 77% say the United Nations needs to be strengthened, even after being introduced to an argument against it: “Some say that because of the increasing interaction between countries, we need to strengthen international institutions to deal with shared problems. Others say that this would only create bigger, unwieldy bureaucracies.” The 77% for strengthening the UN is a 10 point increase from 1999, when PIPA asked the same question. In the 2002 Chicago Council/German Marshall Fund survey it is near the top of the eight international institutions we asked about strengthening, second only to the World Health Organization, and well above the World Bank and IMF (see Figure 4-4).

Most Americans support concrete measures to increase UN capabilities and resources. Fifty-eight percent favor the U.S. paying its UN dues in full, while 32% are opposed. When presented with a list of possible ways to strengthen the UN, two options for giving the UN greater capacity to use military force receive very high support (see Figure 4-5). Seventy-seven percent favor having UN members each commit 1,000 troops to a rapid deployment force that the UN Security Council can call up on short notice when a crisis occurs. The same percentage favor joint training exercises of UN member countries so that their militaries will be better prepared to work together in combat situations. Despite Americans’ alleged aversion to taxes, a slight majority of 51% even favor giving the UN the power to fund its activities by imposing a small tax on such things as the international sale of arms and oil.

Strengthening other UN-related organizations also receives very high support. Eighty percent of the public favor strengthening the World Health Organization, and 56% favor strengthening the World Court (the latter figure is unchanged from a PIPA survey in 1999). This is true even though the mean thermometer rating of the World Court is a neutral 49 degrees—perhaps because respondents do not have enough information about the actual performance of the court to form a distinct feeling one way or the other.

Strengthening international economic institutions, e.g., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, receives more mixed reviews (see Chapter 5), perhaps because of high-profile criticisms regarding the effectiveness of their efforts rather than general attitudes about the value of having such institutions.

Support for the UN and related institutions does not necessarily translate into strong support for the abstract principle of strengthening international law and institutions. Only 43% say strengthening international law and institutions should be a “very important” foreign policy goal. (Another 43% rate it as “somewhat” important; just 10% say it is not important.) Still, in many cases Americans give a high level of support to international institutions, treaties, and agreements.