By Katie Simmons, Bruce Stokes and Jacob Poushter
I'll just assume that this poll is a quite accurate representation of public opinions. It's difficult to tell whether it is, and I have read expressions of doubts already.
- - - - -
The poll held two surprises for me, maybe because I don't remember its predecessors' results:
I didn't know I'm this close to German public opinion in several aspects. Maybe that's because the published opinion is considerably more "pro-Atlantisch".
There were plenty indications for a growing divide between public and published opinion on a wide range of topics, though.
The other surprise was how few of the answers indicate the kind of seemingly self-evident support for meeting collective security obligations - in all countries.
Italy, sure.*
U.S. maybe - faithfulness to international treaties isn't exactly a cornerstone of their culture.
Yet 34-58 % across NATO is far above the percentage you get for any kind of nonsense (such as 'lizard people rule the world') in polls. It's substantial.
I wouldn't have guessed more than 10-20%, though the exact choice of words in the different languages may have made a huge difference.
I was planning to write a bit more about NATO anyway, particularly about how irrational membership in it appears to be for some members (Canada, Spain or Belgium for example) given the current situation. Now I'm a bit more motivated.
Maybe I should ponder some more about the role of nuclear deterrence in Europe post-1990 as well. There may be a stronger 'Small conflicts are not worth the slightest risk of WW3!' component in it than I believed. I did note some hysterical-sounding newspaper online comments and other hints along those lines since 2014 anyway.
related:
2008-04 Alliances and guarantee of independence
2009-05 The utility of NATO
2013-08 About being a U.S. ally
2014-03 Hypocrisy in effect
S O
*: Italians cannot complain about this cheap shot - Germans are entitled to it, period.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment