War & International Conflict

While global publics largely take a positive view of President Obama, he receives his lowest marks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and his ratings are especially poor in the Arab nations of the Middle East.

Overview As the day of reckoning for health care reform approaches, Americans have little to cheer about. Nearly everyone (92%) gives the national economy a negative rating. Closer to home, 85% say that jobs are hard to find in their community. A majority (54%) now says that someone in their household has been without a […]

Overview The general public and members of the Council on Foreign Relations are apprehensive and uncertain about America’s place in the world. Growing numbers in both groups see the United States playing a less important role globally, while acknowledging the increasing stature of China. And the general public, which is in a decidedly inward-looking frame […]

The contrast between attitudes toward military involvement in Afghanistan and Iran fits into a temporal pattern. Americans generally like their wars to be successful or short -- and ideally both.

Americans and Western Europeans agree on the extremist threat from Afghanistan and Pakistan, but divisions remain over the Afghan war

As Obama weighs difficult choices in Afghanistan, the public also appears to be finding it difficult to judge the merits of different options for expanding, maintaining or contracting the U.S. effort on that front.

Overview Public support for keeping U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan has declined since June and Americans express decidedly mixed views about whether the United States is making progress in reducing civilian casualties, defeating the Taliban militarily and establishing democracy in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, a sizable majority of the public (76%) views the possibility of the […]

Troop increases may face considerable opposition in many NATO countries, which were opposed to Obama?s original call for more forces

The American public has long expressed strong support for Israel. In a survey conducted earlier this month during the conflict in the Gaza Strip, 49% of Americans said they sympathized more with Israel in its dispute with the Palestinians, while just 11% sympathized more with the Palestinians and 15% said they sympathized with neither side. […]

Updated Jan. 15, 2009 The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Benjamin Rondel/Corbis) The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has assembled a variety of resources on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and news clips. Pew Forum Resources Event America and […]