Turning a Corner?

A new BBC World Service poll reveals an improving overall opinion of the United States since last year. This comes exactly one day after I used a 2007 Pew survey to illustrate an increasingly negative world opinion of the United States. What has changed? Polling director Steven Kull suggests, "[i]t may be that as the US approaches a new presidential election, views of the US are being mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from the foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world." By the way, among the 13 countries (plus the EU) rated in the poll, Iran and Israel were viewed most negatively. See the complete report here (pdf).