{"id":30859,"date":"2013-09-12T12:51:53","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T17:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2013\/09\/12\/shift-in-public-support-for-un-backed-military-action\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T00:48:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T05:48:50","slug":"shift-in-public-support-for-un-backed-military-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/global\/2013\/09\/12\/shift-in-public-support-for-un-backed-military-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Shift in Public Support for UN-backed Military Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bruce Stokes,\u00a0Director of Global Economic Attitudes,\u00a0Pew Research Center<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Special to European Voice\u00a0<\/em>(subscription required)<\/p>\n\n

Multilateral approval for a military strike against Syria looms large in the transatlantic public debate over what to do about Syria\u2019s alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people. But while\u00a0UN\u00a0approval might provide legal justification for such action, it is not at all clear that it would afford the American government and its European allies with political cover at home.<\/p>\n\n

The French government now says it will wait for the results of the United Nations investigation into the use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar Assad before deciding whether to take military action. The\u00a0US government\u00a0is reportedly open to first seeking a\u00a0UN Security Council\u00a0resolution endorsing punishment of Syria before taking any initiative. And Russia has proposed putting Syria\u2019s chemical weapons under international control.<\/p>\n\n

The ostensible rationale for seeking multilateral backing for an intervention in Syria is a legal one. The UN charter\u00a0pre-empts the use of military force except in self-defence or with Security Council approval. But there is precedent for a military strike without\u00a0UN\u00a0authorisation: in 1999, without the blessing of the Security Council, the US and its\u00a0NATO\u00a0allies bombed Serbia for 78 days in an ultimately successful effort to force the government of Slobodan Milo\u0161evic to withdraw from Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n

Yet the principle of\u00a0UN\u00a0authorisation to use military force to deal with international threats has strong support in Europe, according to a\u00a0Pew Research Center\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0in 2011. In Germany (76%), Spain (74%), Britain (67%) and France (66%), majorities backed the need for prior\u00a0UN\u00a0approval. At the time, only 45% of Americans agreed. Moreover, in that same poll of 23 countries around the world, in only nine did a majority or plurality of the public say that\u00a0UN\u00a0approval was needed. So it may be only in Europe that multilateral backing for a Syrian military strike would provide public political support for a Syrian intervention.<\/p>\n\n

And even that\u00a0UN\u00a0fig-leaf is no longer certain. In the UK, a BBC<\/a>\u00a0survey completed on 1 September found that by more than three-to-one (71% to 20%) the British felt that the national parliament had done the right thing in stopping the\u00a0British government\u00a0from participating in an international military response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria. In France, polls by IFOP<\/a>\u00a0found that opposition to French military engagement, even if it had\u00a0UN\u00a0backing, rose by nine percentage points, to 68%, over the week ending 6 September. The same IFOP survey found that 77% of Germans opposed German involvement in any international military action against Syria.<\/p>\n\n

Meanwhile, in the U.S., 59% of Americans said Washington should first get a\u00a0UN\u00a0resolution to use force before taking military action against Syria, according to a Pew Research Center poll<\/a> completed on 1 September. A week later, just 28% favoured U.S. airstrikes, while 63% opposed them, according to another Pew Research Center survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This opposition to a strike on Syria does not mean that Americans and Europeans are pacifists. Three-quarters of Americans believe that it is sometimes necessary to use military force to maintain order in the world, Pew Research found in 2011<\/a>. That view is shared by seven-in-ten in Britain, roughly six-in-ten French and Spanish and half the Germans.<\/p>\n\n

But it does not appear that many publics view this as one of those times when action is needed to maintain order. So, even if the United Nations concludes that chemical weapons were used in Syria and the UN Security Council\u00a0supports some intervention, it is not at all clear that European and American publics would back a military initiative.<\/p>\n\n

Multilateral sanction may provide legal cover, but it may not provide political cover.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While UN approval might provide legal justification for a military strike against Syria, it is not at all clear that it would afford the American government and its European allies with political cover at 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