At 82% in 2015, American favorability toward France has reached its highest level since this question was first asked in 1991. In the aftermath of January’s Charlie Hebdo terror attack, Secretary of State John Kerry brought musician James Taylor to Paris to sing “You’ve Got a Friend” to the French people, the surest sign yet that Franco-American relations are in a solid state. Americans’ views of their nation’s oldest ally have been steadily on the mend since the two countries had a falling out in 2003 over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, when only 34% rated France favorably.
With relations heading in the opposite direction in recent years, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is now viewed favorably by just 24% of Americans, Russia’s lowest rating since Gallup first began measuring American favorability of the Soviet Union in 1989. U.S.-Russia relations remain strained as a result of disagreement on a number of key issues, most notably Moscow’s support of ethnic Russian rebels in Ukraine’s civil war, a stance that has led the U.S. and its European allies to issue economic sanctions against Russia in the past year.
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