11 Sep 2008
Support for NATO is on the rise according to the latest annual Transatlantic Trends survey released by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Some 57 per cent of Europeans agreed that NATO is essential to their country’s security, up four percentage points since last year.
Increased support was seen in eight of the 12 European countries surveyed, and was particularly marked in Spain, France and Germany.
The poll also analyzed support for NATO's mission in Afghanistan. It showed that Americans and Europeans share high levels of support for providing security for economic reconstruction projects, for helping training Afghan police and military forces, and for combating narcotics production. Differences remain on conducting combat operations, where support among Americans was 76 per cent, compared with 43 per cent of Europeans.
Published on 10 September, the poll was conducted in June – before the crisis in Georgia – in 11 European Union countries, Turkey and the United States.
For more info: http://www.transatlantictrends.org/trends/TTSplash.cfm
