IMPEACH BUSH

AMERICANS ALARMED ABOUT DECLINING U.S. GLOBAL REPUTATION,
NEW BUSINESS FOR DIPLOMATIC ACTION STUDY SHOWS

Voters Want Action

U.S. Businesses Well Positioned to Help Repair America's Relations with the World

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, N.Y. (May 3, 2007)—Recognizing that many people around the world have strong negative views of the United States, substantial majorities of Americans express concern about our nation's declining global reputation and believe it is more important than ever for Americans to repair relationships and build new bridges with the rest of the world.

Those are among the key findings of a just-released survey commissioned by Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), an organization of multinational American companies working to improve the standing of America in the world by engaging the private sector in public diplomacy efforts. The survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted for BDA by Zogby International this April found that:

• 76 percent are concerned about America's global reputation;
• 74 percent believe the U.S. is viewed negatively by people in other countries;
• 66 percent of voters say U.S. relations with the rest of the world are on the wrong track;
• Nearly half of Americans (47 percent) say U.S. multinational corporations should play a "major role" in trying to improve the reputation of the United States, while another 39 percent believe American companies have a "minor role" to play.

"When you have results at the 70 percent or 75 percent level, that's about as close to a universal consensus as you're going to get," said Keith Reinhard, Founder and Chairman of BDA, and Chairman Emeritus of DDB Worldwide. "Americans are saying that our relationship with the rest of the world is broken, but they see a way out."

"Business is especially well positioned to address the problem of America's declining reputation abroad because it knows how to build and maintain cross-cultural relationships around the world, how to listen, how to negotiate and problem-solve across borders," added Reinhard. "With its widespread presence and reach around the world, American business can and should play a lead role in American public diplomacy efforts."

"Americans have a reputation for tuning out the world, but this survey emphatically proves they're quite tuned in to the problem of rising anti-American sentiment and America's eroding global standing," said John Zogby, CEO of Zogby International, which conducted the survey for BDA.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed (61 percent) say it is "more important than ever for Americans to reach out and build new bridges to people from other countries and cultures"—as opposed to 31 percent who say Americans must "build fences around our country to keep out illegal immigrants, terrorists and foreigners in general."

For the first time, public diplomacy trumped foreign policy when voters were asked to outline their concerns with America's standing in the world and how the U.S. should best begin to reverse the decline. An overwhelming majority of voters (69 percent) identified three changes that will have a major impact on the current situation: changing the way the U.S. government conducts public diplomacy; placing more emphasis on social studies and world history courses in American schools; and changing U.S. foreign policy.

Other actions favored by majorities of voters are expanding international exchange programs, encouraging more Americans to learn foreign languages, and getting the U.S. business community involved in public diplomacy.

Other key findings from the survey:

• The survey showed that American voters pointed most often to U.S. foreign policy (72 percent), knowledge of Americans about other countries (69 percent), impact of American media (64 percent) and Americans' attitudes toward foreigners (53 percent) as the most likely factors negatively affecting the image of America abroad.

• The two most positive influences on how the world thinks about the U.S. are the popularity of American brands in other countries (73 percent "mainly positive") and the actions of American businesses operating in other countries (43 percent).

"There's no question that America, the American people and American businesses and brands are facing serious challenges to our global reputation," Reinhard added. "And there's no question that we have to do everything possible to reach out across our borders to turn that trend around. Business can and must help."

For a copy of the full report go to: http://www.businessfordiplomaticaction.org/learn/research.php.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY. This study is based on a telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters nationwide conducted by Zogby International. The survey employs sampling strategies in which selection probabilities are proportional to population size within telephone area codes and exchanges. Up to six calls are made to reach a sampled phone number. Weighting by region, party, age, race, religion, gender is used to adjust for non-response. The margin of error is +/- 3.2 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

ABOUT BUSINESS FOR DIPLOMATIC ACTION. Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to enlist the U.S. business community in actions to improve the standing and reputation of America in the world. Originally organized in early 2002 as a private sector task force of corporate executives, Business for Diplomatic Action was formally incorporated as a 501c(6) corporation in January 2004.