Afghans' Views on International Leadership

It’s been over a year since the United States withdrew its military from Afghanistan. A recent survey conducted by Gallup has captured a snapshot of the sentiments of residents on the ground. Conducted through face-to-face interviews in Dari and Pashto, a random sample of 1,000 adults were spoken to in Afghanistan between July 20 and August 27, 2022.

When asked about the job performance of the leadership of a number of different foreign governments, approval ratings were low overall. Less than one in five respondents approved of the U.S. government’s leadership. This is up 4 percentage points from one year ago, when it hit a record low. Germany, also involved in the withdrawal, saw equally low ratings of 18 percent, with a fall of 7 percentage points from one year prior. Meanwhile China, the main trading partner to engage in trade with the Taliban alongside Pakistan, also saw a fall in approval, dropping by 7 percentage points to only 14 percent.

By comparison, the Islamic countries Saudi Arabia and neighboring Iran, had higher ratings as of August, at 40 percent and 25 percent approval, respectively. Since the question was not asked in these countries in 2021, we do not know if this has increased or decreased since the time of the withdrawal.

In the most recent series of surveys conducted by Gallup, Afghans rated their lives worse than any population has since the first publication of the World Poll. Gallup writer Jay Loschky explains: “Afghans didn’t always view the leadership of other countries unfavorably, but they now find themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation and failed by the international community.”

It is important to note here this chart’s limitations in so far that the data hides details such as the disparities in approval ratings between different ethnic communities within Afghanistan. For instance, where 53 percent of ethnic Hazaras approved of the U.S., only 8 percent of Pashtuns stated the same.