Swedes' view of the world raises eyebrows
The Swedes are the most positive population in western countries when it comes to the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and almost half want the international community to intervene in Syria. Those are some of the surprising results in a new international survey about what we think about the world around us.
Over 68 percent of Swedes think it was right to help the Libyans oust Colonel Gadaffi, and 56 percent even thought the invasion of Iraq was a good thing. All according to this year's edition of the Translatlantic Trends survey which looks at foreign policy opinions in 15 countries, mostly in the EU, but also the USA, Turkey and Russia.
And Sweden sticks out in many ways. Not only are Swedes most in favour of interventionist policies in the Middle East, they are also most negative towards Israel and very sceptical about Russia too. 68 percent of Swedes said they had a negative picture of Israel, Sweden was the most negative of all the countries questioned. Swedes were also worried about the threat of nuclear weapons being developed in Iran, and only just over a fifth of Swedes had a positive image of Russia.
79 percent of Swedes say they would vote for Barack Obama if they could participate in this autumn's US presidential election, and a large majority also think that this country's government has dealt well with the recent global economic crisis.
Radio Sweden spoke to the head of The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Anna Jardfelt, to find out more.
