Duke Professor shares insight with UNCP students

Political science professor Dr. Oli R. Holsti from Duke University spoke to UNCP students about how foreign publics see the United States since 9/11.            

Holsti said that within 24 hours, 90 percent of the world knew about the attacks of 9/11.

Photo courtesy of University Relations Dr. Oli R. Holsti, a political science professor at Duke University, spoke to a packed audience about 9/11 and the world’s reaction to it.

Countries sympathize

Many countries sympathized with us after the terrorist attacks and felt that the use of force in Afghanistan was a legitimate response.            

“That huge outpouring of sympathy has been greatly eroded,” Holsti said.            

Holsti said that in terms of the military and the economy, the United States is usually unchallenged.            
           
However, when it came to the invasion of Iraq, most of our allies would not support us.            

Canadian reaction

Canada has supported us in every war since the War of 1812, but they would not support us in Iraq, he said.            
He said that Saudi Arabia recently called the invasion of Iraq illegal.            

Holsti used various published polls as evidence to show that, while the majority of countries have a less favorable view of the U.S., they differentiate between America’s policies and Americans.                     

American actions            
           
He also said that American actions make a big difference. 

Citing data, Holsti said that when the Iraq invasion happened, India was one of the countries that looked less favorably on the United States.            

Those statistics changed when there was a huge outpouring of support for India from the United States after a tsunami hit in 2004.            

The Indian people started to have a more favorable view of the United States.            

Distinguished author                          
           
Holsti has been a professor at Duke since 1974.             

He has coauthored or edited a dozen books, and has been published in numerous academic journals.

Dr. Oli R. Holsti was invited to speak to students in the Dial Humanities Building as part of the 2007 Gibson and Mary Anna Gray Lecture Series.