A new global poll found declining comfort with either the United States or China taking a leading role in world affairs, even as support for international cooperation remained steady.
Just 39% of respondents said they were comfortable with the United States playing a leading role in global affairs, and 37% were comfortable with China, according to a Rockefeller Foundation survey. The poll surveyed 35,399 adults across 34 countries from July 21 to Aug. 5.
Canada received the highest level of support, at 60%, followed by Japan at 58% and Australia at 55%. Also, 61% of respondents said they would support countries working together to address global problems even if the group did not include the U.S. or China.
Respondents expressed broader pessimism about the state of the world. Nearly 7 in 10 said the world had gotten worse over the past year, while 57% said countries should cooperate to address global challenges even when doing so requires compromising some national interests.
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The poll comes as the United States remains engaged in a war with Iran and trade disputes with Canada, while the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to shape debate over U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.
The survey also found growing trust in several international institutions. Some 69% of people said they trust in the World Health Organization, up from 61% last year, while trust in the United Nations increased 4 percentage points to 62%, according to the foundation.
The findings come as the U.S. government has pulled back from several international institutions it historically helped lead.
In January 2025, the Trump administration announced it would be pulling out of the WHO due to disagreements over the institution’s handling of COVID-19, China’s alleged influence over the body and the United States’ financial obligations.
The administration has used the same reasoning to attack the U.N.
“The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders. ... The U.N. is supposed to stop invasions, not create them and not finance them,” President Donald Trump said in his 2025 speech before the body.
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