Every one of the United States' wars, presidents, and policies throughout the years has contributed to how the country is perceived around the globe.
NBC News gathered foreign citizens' opinions of America, and will highlight their responses in a series of stories throughout the week.
To some, America's policies have molded perceptions that "America means war; America means blood" (Afghanistan) or that top officials are trying "to keep all other countries under their yoke" (Cuba).
And while some focused on matters of government and economics, others commented on aspects of America's "over-the-top" culture (England) and multi-billion dollar movie industry (China).
The Pew Research Center recently compared worldwide attitudes toward the U.S. and found that confidence in President Barack Obama and approval of his international policies have declined from 2009 levels. However, Obama's approval ratings still remain higher than those of former President George W. Bush's in 2008.
The report also revealed that younger residents of most countries tended to have a better perception of the United States when compared to other age groups.
The report included results from Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, and more.
In 2007, data from a BBC World Service and GlobeScan collaboration revealed that 21 out of 26 countries surveyed said the U.S. "is having a mostly negative influence" in the world, according to WorldPublicOpinion.org.
Favorable opinions of the U.S. dropped in countries such as Germany, where ratings dropped from 78 percent in 1999-2000 to 37 percent in 2005-2006, and Turkey, where they dropped from 62 percent to 12 percent.
In 2011, Stephan Richter, president of the Globalist Research Center, addressed crowds during the Global Agenda Series at the University of Delaware, where he noted that the U.S. was once "admired based on four central principals: middle class society, pragmatism, modernity and the societal capacity of tolerating change."
He suggested that officials analyze the past to make improvements for the future.
“We should really look back to what made us great in the eyes of others, and we can learn a lot from that,” Richter was quoted as saying in the University of Delaware's UDaily.
Yet perceptions of America and its citizens aren't only shaped by politics, economics and foreign policy. In 2008, Conde Naste Traveler revealed that things like manners, body language, sex and appearance also affect the way foreigners think about the U.S.
Watch NBC's report in the video above.