Worldview

It is fashionable in some circles to deride the rest of the world and to snicker at suggestions that the United States work more closely with international organizations. A recent poll, however, shows that the American people support international cooperation and believe that the United States should sign several global treaties.

Perhaps most important for policy- makers, especially President Bush and his challenger, Democratic Sen. John Kerry, is the public’s ranking of U.S. foreign policy goals. The top priority is protecting U.S. jobs, followed by preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and combating international terrorism.

The survey by the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan group that promotes greater global understanding, found that 66 percent of Americans believe this country should work within the United Nations, even when it adopts policies the United States does not like. According to the poll, 76 percent of Americans support the International Criminal Court, 71 percent support the Kyoto accords on global warming and 87 percent an international treaty banning nuclear weapons testing. The United States has refused to sign on to any of these agreements. The online survey of 1,195 adults selected because they represent the country’s population was released late last month.

The current administration is also out of step with the public’s thinking about the largest threats to America. Asked to rank U.S. foreign policy goals, 78 percent of those asked ranked protecting the jobs of American workers as very important. Seventy-three percent said preventing the spread of nuclear weapons was very important, followed by 71 percent who said combating international terrorism was their top concern. Only 14 percent rated bringing democracy to other countries as very important.

Combating terrorism has dropped in importance. In the council’s 2002 telephone survey, 91 percent of those asked said combating terrorism was very important.

Sen. Kerry may have gone too far with comments in the Sunday New York Times magazine when he compared terrorism to prostitution and organized crime, activities that cannot be stopped but should be minimized. “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” he said. “It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”

Mr. Bush, on the other hand, has made fighting terrorism the centerpiece of his re-election campaign, while devoting little attention to the economy and loss of jobs since he assumed office. His campaign immediately scripted a new television ad saying that Sen. Kerry does not understand the threat of terrorism.

The foreign relations council survey suggests that the truth lies somewhere in between.