Man is a social animal as well as a thinking animal. He continuously thinks on issues around him which leads to the formation of opinion in his mind on certain issues. Besides forming an opinion man is also able to express his opinion either through writing or speech. He is free to express his opinion on every issue of the world and at every place as ours is a democratic era where freedom of speech is considered a basic right in all countries of the world. As all persons come up with their own opinions on issues so there arises a collection of different opinions on the same issue. Here comes the concept of public opinion. Public opinion refers to the aggregation of the views of individuals on a specific issue. Numerically it expresses the average opinion of people on a specific issue. Public opinion has tremendous significance in modern world as heads of nation-states take into account the opinion of their people on both domestic and foreign policy issues.
Domestically and externally the government of the state needs the support of its people to uphold and execute its national as well as foreign policy respectively. So it can be said that public opinion is a powerful tool having both domestic and foreign significance for a state. If it is pro-state it increases the ability of a state to respond to issues. On the contrary if it is anti-state it resists the state’s ability to respond to issues and can even lead to fall of the ruling regime. Public opinion also plays an important role in the growth of global movements like climate change, human rights, gender equality etc. There has been a continuous growing support to all of these movements in both the western as well as eastern world.
These movements along with the massive public support they carry are challenging every nation-state to act on their demands. In the era of globalization and communications these movements have gained unprecedented momentum and are pressuring world leaders to stop global warming, human rights violations etc. almost at every global forum. Public opinion has also played an important role in the liberation struggles of various nations. In South Africa the apartheid government of whites crumbled down due to growing global public opinion in favour of blacks who were discriminated. It was public opinion which led to sanctions on government of South Africa and further isolation in the international community.
In modern days we are seeing a strong and growing public opinion developing all over the world in favour of Palesine. According to various political analysts of our country as the generations Baby Boomer and X which were less concerning towards human rights and freedom of colonized societies is reaching old age and is dying while being replaced by generation Z which is more concerning towards human rights and freedom of colonized societies especially Palestine this signifies a growing public and political support from the western world towards Palestinians in future.
During the recent humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza we have seen students in the campuses of western universities protesting for the freedom and rights of Palestinians and demanding actions from their governments to stop supporting Israel .A growing gulf is emerging from the western world where people are coming out on streets to demand their governments for ending their support to Israel. There is slowly growing sympathy in the hearts of the people of the western world for the victims of oppression and colonialism backed by the governments of their own countries. It is seen in first time in history of USA that its own people are hating the actions of their government to oppress and subjugate the people of foreign lands. The global south is already demanding an end to neo-colonialism and establishment of a just world order not dictated by west. Analysts are predicting that public opinion can play a deciding role to end western dominance in global politics and establish a fair international world order. Let’s be optimistic of future.

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