Correspondence: Andrew Hammond, 78 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ES, UK. Fax: 44 (0)20 3178 4760

¹is a director at ReputationInc, an international management consultancy, which specialises in strategic communications and reputation management. Prior to joining ReputationInc, he worked as a special adviser in the UK Government, and as a senior analyst at Oxford Analytica, an international political and economics consultancy. He has a postgraduate degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics, and a First Class undergraduate degree in Politics from the University of Bristol. The views expressed in this article are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of ReputationInc, or any of the other institutions for which he has previously worked or had an affiliation.

Received 30 May 2008; Revised 30 May 2008.

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact that US and UK homeland security and counter-terrorism responses to the post-September 2001 threat environment have had on international perceptions of the two countries. While both governments have endured major controversies in these areas of governance, this has had more bearing on the global standing of the United States than the United Kingdom. The reasons for this are multi-layered, ranging from structural-historical factors through to the contrasting political personas of senior US and UK politicians. At the time of writing, with the 2008 US presidential election looming, the international image of the United States could soon receive a major boost, particularly if Senator Barack Obama wins. However, while history indicates that the country has the potential to fully recover from the unpopularity it now suffers across much of the world, this cannot be taken for granted, even if some of the Bush administration's most controversial security policies are ended. In part, this is because previous major falls in US international popularity, including as a result of the Vietnam conflict, occurred during the Cold War in which US allies still regarded the Soviet Union as the greater danger. Contemporary geopolitics is more fluid with several alternative power centres now in competition with the United States for international influence.