WASHINGTON—Preference for stronger U.S. relations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has dropped in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon since 2016, according to new data from the Arab Barometer, a nonpartisan research network providing insight into social, political, and economic attitudes of citizens throughout the Arab world. The findings were presented at the Atlantic Council on June 26.
Data indicated that the United States is one of the least preferred partners in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon compared to other international actors.
“What we actually see is that there has been a little bit of a drop since 2016 overall in the MENA region from 45 to 38 percent,” said Kathrin Thomas, research associate at the Arab Barometer. “The country that stands out is really Jordan, where we do see that more people prefer stronger U.S. relations.”
Arab countries like Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon have shown partiality toward other international players like Qatar, Turkey, or even China instead. Those countries’ people have also voiced a demand for more foreign aid in the MENA region, but said the United States is the least desired partner in terms of donations.
“There’s also a lot of pessimism about the motives of giving foreign aid,” Thomas said. “[People believe] that the donor countries really want to gain influence over the host countries. In Lebanon and Jordan, this is very clear that the belief is prevalent.”
Despite the current political climate in the MENA region with the United States, the data shows that a majority think of Americans as good people, albeit a slight drop in 2016.
Lebanon
According to 2016 data from the Arab Barometer, 62 percent of Lebanese people believe the United States’ influence on the development of democracy in the country is negative, versus only 16.2 percent seeing American influence as a positive; 37.6 percent said the United States should not get involved in the country at all.
“The social attitudes and the attitudes towards the United States are a bit more difficult to understand,” said Faysal Itani, nonresident senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. “The United States breaks down approximately as I would have expected, given Lebanese political attitudes, more negative now than a few years ago, partly [because of recent] U.S. policy.”
Jordan
Arab Barometer data from 2016 shows Jordanians tend to have more positive view of American influence on the development of democracy in their country: 29.7 percent view it as a negative versus 27.7 percent who view it as a positive. The rest of the majority saw it as neither positive nor negative. In terms of positive policy execution by the United States inside the country’s borders, 34.2 percent responded that the United States should work toward resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and 33.1 percent said Americans should not get involved at all within the country.
Iraq
Data from the Arab Barometer published in 2013 show that 54.4 percent of Iraqis perceive the United States’ influence on the development of democracy in their country as negative versus 26.2 percent seeing it as positive. When it comes to American policies in the region, 49.2 percent of Iraqis replied that the United States should not interfere.
“I was interested in how the Iraqis have viewed the United States, both at the official level and at the popular level. This is something we’ve seen in Iraq even from prior to 2003,” said Abbas Kadhim, director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “There is this separation between how you view the American people as a society and how you view the government, and that lingers from the old days where, you know, people and places like Iraq, they do not see that the government is really reflective of what the people are because they never had that long experience of choosing the government and being sort of viewed as unified with their government.”
Other Data
The discussion also delved into other topics important to the region, such as future economic stability and corruption in domestic politics. Thomas said overall, Iraqis, Jordanians, and Lebanese publics are pessimistic about the current and future economy.
Itani explained how the political relations in Lebanon have had lasting effect on the growth of the domestic economy.
“From a foreign relations point of view, Lebanon is often understood as a place where international relations stuff happens,” Itani said, referring to the civil unrest there and Hezbollah. “Lebanon has been through civil war and then you could add a couple of decades of insecurity to it such that actually, [Lebanese people] have these very much more mundane concerns.”
Itani continued: “From an objective point of view, I think it’s not recognized often enough how dire the situation is for people and the fact that there’s such a negative perception of how the economy has evolved, [it] has present economic implications for investment or planning for confidence.”
Thomas presented data showing high levels of perceived corruption. According to 2013 data, 91.4 percent of the total surveyed population believed there was corruption within the state’s institutions and agencies.
All data from the presentation can be found for free through the Arab Barometer’s online analysis tool.
Sandra Sadek is a staff writer for Homeland411.com
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