World Publics favor new powers for the UN - Global Poll by Chicago Council on Global Affairs 5:15pm 7th May, 2007   Publics around the world favor dramatic steps to strengthen the United Nations, including giving it the power to have its own standing peacekeeping force, to regulate the international arms trade and to investigate human rights abuses.    Large majorities believe the United Nations Security Council should have the right to authorize military force to prevent nuclear proliferation, genocide and terrorism. However support is not as robust among the publics polled for accepting UN decisions that go against their countries’ preferences.    These are some of the findings from a survey conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and WorldPublicOpinion.org, in cooperation with polling organizations around the world. Respondents were interviewed in countries that represent 56 percent of the world’s population: China, India, the United States, Russia, France, Thailand, Ukraine, Poland, Iran, Mexico, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Armenia and Israel, plus the Palestinian territories. Not all questions were asked in all countries.    “Despite well-publicized disagreements over the role of the United Nations in world affairs, this survey clearly shows that international public opinion has coalesced around the notion that the UN should be the vehicle for conflict resolution and international cooperation on a wide variety of pressing problems,” said Christopher Whitney, executive director for studies at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.    Steven Kull, editor of WorldPublicOpinion.org, says the survey suggests that people around the world are more open to multilateral action than their governments.    “While leaders of nation states may be wary of giving the United Nations more power it is clear that publics around the world are comfortable with the idea of a stronger UN,” Kull said.    The idea of “having a standing UN peacekeeping force selected, trained and commanded by the United Nations” gets support from majorities in 12 of the 14 countries asked (64% on average). Peru is the most enthusiastic (77%), followed by Armenia (75%), France (74%), Thailand (73%), and the United States (72%). Argentines support such a force by margin of 48 percent to 30 percent. In none of the countries polled do most respondents oppose this idea, though views are divided in the Philippines.    Support for “giving the UN the power to regulate the international arms trade” is also supported by majorities or pluralities in 12 of the 14 countries (55% on average). France shows the greatest support (77%), followed by South Korea (75%), Israel (60%) and the United States (60%). Only two publics tend to reject the idea: Filipinos (58% say no) and Argentines (42% negative, 36% positive).    Giving the UN authority “to investigate violations of human rights” receives very high levels of support (64% overall). Overwhelming majorities favor this idea in France (92%), the United States (75%), Peru (75%), and South Korea (74%). The only exceptions are Argentina, where a plurality supports such investigations (46% to 29%) and the Philippines where the public is divided.    Publics show lower, but still substantial, support for “giving the UN the authority to fund its activities by imposing a small tax on such things as the international sale of arms or oil” (on average 46% in favor and 37% opposed). Nine countries favor this idea, led by France (70%), China (55%), South Korea (53%), and Israel (52%). Four countries oppose it, including majorities in the Philippines (56%), and Peru (55%), and pluralities in the United States (50% to 45%) and Argentina (42% to 32%). Russians are divided.    * For more details visit link below. Visit the related web page
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