Improving U.S.-Muslim relations

While the United States was never popular in the Middle East, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq outraged much of the Muslim world. While former U.S. President George W. Bush was careful to emphasize that the "war on terror" was not with Islam, many Muslims saw it as such.

President Barack Obama has made an effort to reach out to the peoples of Muslim nations, but it has had little impact, according to some data.

Arab approval of Obama has dropped dramatically since last year, despite what many had mistakenly viewed as his popularity in the region, according to "The View from the Middle East: The 2010 Public Opinion Poll," released last month by the University of Maryland and Zogby International.

The study found a significant shift in Arabs' perception of Obama, whose disapproval ratings in the region jumped from 23 percent last year to 62 percent this year.

While Arabs approved of the president's early opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq, as well as his plans to close Guantanamo, they judge him according to the issues with which they are most concerned, rather than his personality, said Shibley Telhami, professor at the University of Maryland and the study's principal investigator.

While the president was well-received during last year's Middle East visit, in which he called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims, U.S. media misinterpreted Arab sentiment and thought Arabs embraced Obama. In reality, they were neutral toward him, Telhami said.

Do Israel, Palestine hold the key?

The poll also found that disappointment over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resonates deepest in the Arab world and influences Arabs' evaluation of Obama and the United States. The issue is the central prism through which Arabs view the United States, Telhami said.

U.S. President Barack Obama recognizes that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is an important U.S. national security issue, and this month kicked off the next round of peace talks between the two sides in Washington. Leon T. Hadar, research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said a resolution of the Israel-Palestine issue would create an environment that would reduce support for anti-Israeli and anti-American radicalism.

But much of the political instability in the Arab and Muslim worlds is driven by long-term structural problems that have to do with the tensions between Islam and modernity as well as the opposition to non-democratic regimes, he said.

The United States is limited in its ability to influence those trends, but what it needs to do is to reassess its policies in the Middle East -- especially military intervention in Iraq and elsewhere -- which tends to strengthen anti-American attitudes and increase the likelihood of anti-American terrorism, he said.

Looking to the future

While terrorism is still a danger, it is no strategic threat to the existence of the United States, unlike the former Soviet Union, said Nathan Hughes, director of military analysis at global intelligence company Stratfor.

Since 9/11, Washington has relegated other foreign policy issues - ones that are the major drivers of geopolitics - to the backburner, some analysts said.

As military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, however, Washington will focus on how to deal with a number of quickly rising global powers, Hughes said.

The United States has been for years focused on non-state actors, but ultimately the key components of U.S. foreign policy will focus on large state actors and how they either support or do not support those non-state groups, he said.