GENOCIDE IN DARFUR AND AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION

A December 2004 PIPA-Knowledge Networks survey conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) on concludes that three out of four Americans favor UN-coordinated military intervention in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.  According to the survey, 17% of Americans are opposed to a UN military intervention and 10% did not answer.  When asked whether the US should contribute troops to a UN-coordinated military operation if other members of the UN were willing to contribute troops, 60% of those questioned said “yes” while 1 in 3 respondents were opposed.  Results were based on answers given by 801 participants to 49 questions (only 13 questions have been released to the public to date; 9 of those were questions related to the demographics of the participants).  There was a +/- 3.5% margin of error.

Respondents across the political spectrum support action: 83% of Republicans, 71% of Democrats, and 70% of independents supported UN intervention in Darfur. In addition, 62% of Republicans, 64% of Democrats, and 58% of independents favored committing U.S. troops to a UN-led force, provided other member states make similar commitments.

Respondents supported contributing U.S. troops to a UN operation in Darfur in response to questions that explicitly called the situation genocide and did so nearly as strongly in response to questions that used other terms. When asked whether respondents thought genocide was taking place in Darfur, 56% said “yes” while 24% agreed with the position that it was “not really genocide, but a civil war between the government and people in a resistant region that happen to be of a different ethnic group.”  The other 20% declined to answer.

Poll results also showed that 47% of respondents predicted that the international community, including the US, will not actually “step in with military force and stop the genocide in Darfur.”  42% of respondents took the opposite position, and 11% were unsure.  47% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats believed that the international community would step in, while 45% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats believed it would not.

This poll was a follow-up of another study conducted in July 2004 regarding American attitudes about the situation in Darfur.  Both polls were fielded using a nationwide panel which was randomly selected from an adult population, who were then provided internet access.

+ Click here to read official PIPA article

Last Updated December 15, 2005