War & International Conflict

Overview Americans have a mixed view of the war in the Gaza Strip, and see it in much the same way as they viewed Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in 2006. While continuing to express strong general support for Israel, the public offers limited approval of Israel’s decision to take military action in Gaza. However, Hamas […]

by Richard Wike, Associate Director, Pew Global Attitudes Project In the Middle East and elsewhere, Muslim reaction to the Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has been swift and angry, with protests in Amman, Beirut, Istanbul, Tehran, Jakarta, and several other capitals. Palestinians in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank, where Hamas rival […]

Soaring concern about the economy has displaced the Iraq War as the top priority issue among voters. Ambivalent and contradictory public opinions further complicate the role that the conflict will play in the November election.

Summary of Findings Democratic voters are not as positive about Barack Obama as they were a month ago. Somewhat smaller percentages of Democrats describe Obama in favorable terms, and he has lost his lead over Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination. Nationally, Democratic voters are about evenly divided between Obama and Clinton; […]

The tactical success of the surge and the tactical failures of the new Democratic Congress are among the reasons why the five-year-old conflict seems to have disappeared from the headlines. And then there are the competing demands of covering the most intriguing presidential campaign in recent memory.

Ratings of how things are going in Iraq have improved over the past year, but a clear majority now say the initial decision to go to war was wrong.

Summary of Findings What’s Your News IQ? Take the LatestQuiz Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had […]

A huge partisan gap divides Americans on the question of whether the U.S. is making progress in defeating the insurgency in Iraq with 80% of Republicans saying that it is, but only 36% of Democrats agreeing.

What image of war did journalists—challenged with reporting events from Iraq—portray to the American public in the first 10 months of 2007? What role did violence play in the coverage? Who did reporters rely on for information? A new study of Iraq war coverage addresses these questions.

In a new PEJ survey, journalists reporting from Iraq say the conditions are the most dangerous they've ever encountered. Ninety percent say most of Baghdad remains too dangerous to visit. Nearly 60% of the news organizations have had at least one Iraqi staff member killed or kidnapped in the last year. The survey is of 111 journalists from 29 news organizations reporting from Iraq.