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A Pew survey of U.S. and West European societal values found that fewer people in the U.S. are now convinced of their nation's exceptionalism. The percentage of Americans who agreed with the statement "Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others" has dropped from 60% in 2002.
Is our culture superior?
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DISAGREE / AGREE
U.S.
46%
49%
GERMANY
52%
47%
SPAIN
55%
44%
BRITAIN
63%
32%
FRANCE
73%
27%
SOURCE: PEW GLOBAL ATTITUDES PROJECT
Look Who's on Board
4 | BURMA
Celebrated democracy activist Aung Sang Suu Kyi threw her lot in with the military junta that kept her under house arrest for nearly two decades. The NLD, Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, decided to formally register with the government ahead of upcoming elections. In the past year, the pariah state has showed marked signs of reform, from releasing Suu Kyi last November to staging (flawed) elections to haltingly opening up media coverage in the country. Such gains are easily reversible, but a Dec. 1 visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a sign the junta's good behavior is getting noticed.
Diplomat in The Doghouse
5 | PAKISTAN
Hussain Haqqani, Islamabad's erudite and well-regarded ambassador to the U.S., resigned amid a scandal that engulfed the fractious South Asian nation. A Pakistani-American businessman has alleged that in the days following the May killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces on Pakistani soil, Haqqani delivered a memo to the Pentagon seeking help to prevent a feared military coup in his home country. The envoy denies the accusation. His departure offers more evidence of the military's power over a weak civilian government.