Obama's approval ratings have been slumping lately, but that is presumably mostly about the economy, health care and other domestic issues. The Pew Research Center is just releasing its annual survey of international attitudes toward the United States -- the first of the Obama era. It shows humongous jumps in favorable attitudes toward Washington and confidence that Obama will "do the right thing" in most of the world, much smaller improvements in Arab countries and a decline in just one country -- Israel.

Pew has been doing this massive multinational survey since 1999. This year, they polled in 24 nations plus the Palestinian territories. After former Pres. Bush invaded Iraq, world views of the U.S. and confidence in the president to "do the right thing" cratered. Now it's back to pre-Bush/early-Bush levels in general, but the regional variations are worth thinking about.

From the report's own summary:

The new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, conducted May 18 to June 16, finds that
confidence in Barack Obama’s foreign policy judgments stands behind a resurgent U.S. image in many countries. Belief that Obama will “do the right thing in world affairs” is now nearly universal in Western countries, where lack of confidence in President Bush had been almost as prevalent for much of his time in office. In France and Germany, no fewer than nine-in-ten express confidence in the new American president, exceeding the ratings achieved by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel in their own countries.

In Asia, optimism about Obama is almost as extensive with 85% of Japanese and 81% of South Koreans expressing confidence in the American president, and only somewhat lower percentages expressing that view in India (77%) and China (64%). In Brazil, 76% have confidence in Obama, as do most Argentines (61%), despite their generally skeptical view of the U.S. as expressed in this and earlier surveys.

Even in some countries where the U.S. remains unpopular, significant percentages nonetheless say that they think Obama will do the right thing in international affairs. In Egypt and Jordan, sizable numbers have confidence in him -- 42% and 31% respectively. This represents a three-fold increase compared with opinions about President Bush in 2008. But in Pakistan and the Palestinian territories, ratings of Obama are only marginally better than the abysmal ratings accorded Bush. Again, Israel stands alone as the only country where Obama does not engender more confidence than did President Bush. And only about one-in-three Russians (37%) voice confidence in the new president, although this is still a considerably better rating than Bush received in 2008 (22%).

The full report is here.