The United States has appeared “more threatening” over the past year, while perceptions of China have improved markedly in parts of the Western world, according to a global risk survey released on Monday.
In eight of the other 10 countries surveyed, more respondents viewed the US as an ally than as a threat, this year’s edition of the Munich Security Index showed. It drew on surveys conducted last year of 11,099 people from all G7 powers and four of the Brics’ five founding members, excluding Russia.
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What China’s swift ousting of two top military generals means for the PLA
What China’s swift ousting of two top military generals means for the PLA
But the poll carried out in November revealed a universal decline in US approval ratings, as the favourable-minus-unfavourable margin – a measure of net favourability – shrank from the previous year’s gauge across all the non-US nations covered.
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The deepest erosion, a drop of 52 percentage points, was recorded in Canada amid growing diplomatic and trade tensions between the two neighbours.
“Evaluations of the US stand out: respondents in all surveyed countries see the US as more threatening than last year,” said the Munich Security Report 2026, which features the index.
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The report characterised the second Trump administration as “the most prominent of those who promise to free their country from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild a stronger, more prosperous nation”.
