Transatlantic Trends 2003

Foreign relations. Relations of country to the USA, military
interventions, military alliances, Arab/Israeli conflict, combating
international terrorism.

Topics: support for an active role of own country in international
politics; attitude towards strong leadership in world affairs by the
USA; assessment of the George W. Bush administration´s handling of
foreign policy; attitude towards the amount of government expenditure
for education, defense, and social welfare and health; personal
preference of superpower status for the European Union and/or the USA;
preferred role for the European Union in international politics;
against superpower status for the European Union because of higher
military spending; reasons for the European Union to become a
superpower: competition with the USA, more effective cooperation with
the USA in solving international problems or forming a counterweight to
the USA; willingness to accept increase in military expenditures for
European superpower status; assessment of potential international
threats to Europe/the USA: economic competition from Europe/the USA,
Islamic fundamentalism, international terrorism, large numbers of
immigrants and refugees, the military conflict between Israel and its
Arab neighbors, the development of weapons of mass destruction by North
Korea (split A) or by Iran (split B), US unilateralism; 100-point
sympathy temperature scale for the USA, Russia, Germany, Israel, Great
Britain, France, the European Union, the Palestinians, and split A:
Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, North Korea, and Syria / split B:
Turkey, China, Portugal, Iran, and Saudi Arabia; attitude towards
strengthening the United Nations (split A), attitude towards the United
Nations in general (split B); assessment of the development of
transatlantic relations in recent years; European Union or the USA more
important for vital interests of own country; assessment of costs in
lives and money for Iraq war; support for involvement of own country´s
troops in military action against a nuclear-armed North Korea and Iran
respectively, supported by only the US, by NATO, by the United Nations
Security Council, the USA and its allies (8 split groups); preference
for military action or economic sanctions against countries harboring
terrorists depending on whether measures are supported by the European
Union and/or the USA (split groups 1-4) / preference for military
action or economic sanctions against countries threatening nuclear
action depending on whether measures are supported by the European
Union and/or the USA (split groups 5-8); support for various proposals
to help solve the Arab/Israeli (split A), the Israeli/Palestinian
(split B) conflict; distribution of political roles between the USA and
Europe; support for Israel because it is a democracy; economic strength
more important than military strength in world affairs; attitude
towards the necessity of war to fight injustice; attitude towards
ignoring the United Nations if vital interests of country are
concerned; opinion on presumed European unwillingness to take
responsibility in international affairs; opinion on cultural and social
difference between the USA and Europe; knowledge of permanent members
of the United Nations Security Council; self-placement on a left-right
continuum.

Demography: sex, age, highest level of education received,
occupation, party preference, number of persons older than 17 in
household (reduced size of household); only in US: ethnic background.
Additional variables: country, region, interviewer ID, date of
interview. Weights: weight Europe (for analyses focusing on European
data, weight factor 0 for American data), weight for
gender-age-education (redressment), US-weight for race (redressment for
ethnic background), US-weight gender-age-education and race
(redressment).