America: seen as the number one threat to world peace, says one survey

11 May 2018
What was claimed

A global survey from around 2014 found that 24% of people thought the USA was the country that posed the greatest danger to world peace.

Our verdict

Correct.

“A few years ago, I think it was 2014 but don’t hold me to that, Gallup which is an American polling company, did a global survey, 66 countries, over 100,000 people, so this was not just radical, crazy, leftist, and they asked people which country in the world was the greatest danger to world peace. This was before Trump came into office. 25%—24% to be precise—responded the United States of America.”

Akala, 10 May 2018

 This widely-reported figure appears to come from a poll done by the WIN/Gallup International network of market research agencies.

 It dates from 2013, when Barack Obama was President of the United States.

 An archived press release tells us that “The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today. This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%). Respondents in Russia (54%), China (49%) and Bosnia (49%) were the most fearful of the US as a threat.” We’ve not been able to find more detailed results of the survey.

According to the press release, the questions were asked in 65 countries, to around a thousand people in each country.

Gallup International (not to be confused with the separate US polling firm Gallup) does not appear to have repeated the question more recently.

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