How the world views the US elections, from Israel to North Korea

North Koreas apparent enthusiasm for a Trump presidency could be connected to his desire to dismantle the postwar arrangements that many believe have ensured the security of the USs most important allies in the Asia-Pacific, Japan and South Korea.

In a campaign speech late last year, Trump described Japan, where 47,000 US troops are based, as a security freeloader. If somebody attacks Japan, we have to immediately go and start World War III, OK? If we get attacked, Japan doesnt have to help us, he said. Somehow, that doesnt sound so fair.

Trumps frequent claim that Japan is taking advantage of US largesse is inaccurate. Tokyo contributes 192bn ($1.84bn) a year towards maintaining the US military presence. US bases in Japan cost about $5.5bn a year, according to the Pentagon, about half of which goes on salaries and other personnel costs.

South Korea, meanwhile, contributes $850m a year about half the cost of maintaining 28,500 troops on the southern side of the heavily fortified border that divides the Korean peninsula.

Yet Trump has returned to the theme throughout the campaign: As far as Japan and other countries, we are being ripped off by everybody in the world, he said at an event in Las Vegas. Were defending other countries, were spending a fortune doing it. We have to tell Japan, in a very nice way, we have to tell Germany, all these countries, South Korea, we have a say, You have to help us out.

More alarming than Trumps claim that Japan is not pulling its weight on bilateral security ties is his suggestion that Japan and South Korea should end their dependence on the US nuclear umbrella and develop their own nuclear deterrents.

That, many analysts agree, could spark an Asia-Pacific arms race that would further destabilise an already tense region.

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

Afghanistan

Just as Afghanistan has been almost entirely absent from the two presidential campaigns, neither are the US elections a topic of debate in Afghan media, where the war with the Taliban and domestic political chaos take up most of the bandwidth.

To the extent the elections are discussed by ordinary Afghans, conversations centre around Trump, particularly his demonization of Muslims, which gathered pace after the Orlando nightclub shooting in June. The perpetrator, Omar Mateen, was of Afghan origin, and Trumps explicit linking of Afghans to terrorism earned him widespread contempt.

Afghans in general seem unsure of what either candidate has in store for their country, apart from two indications from the Trump campaign: his proposed ban on Muslims from entering America; and his calls to pull American troops home, or at least limit their role in Afghanistan, which would likely have a destabilising effect on the country. Neither is popular with Afghans.

Recently, though, Afghans have mostly treated the US elections with a certain sarcastic distance. After the third presidential debate, Trumps refusal to accept the election results if he did not win led to a wave of snarky commentary on social media. Some suggested that perhaps the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, would need to fly to Washington to broker a national unity government deal, as the US secretary of state, John Kerry, did after the divisive 2014 Afghan election.

Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul

Germany

If Hillary Clinton were to run against Donald Trump for the German presidency, she would win by a landslide. An October survey run by the polling institute Infratest Dimap found that 86% of Germans would vote for the former US secretary of state. An earlier poll discovered that even among supporters of the rightwing populists Alternative fr Deutschland, only one in four could imagine voting for Trump.

The widely held view is that a Trump presidency would add further turmoil to an increasingly unstable global economy, a development which Germany, as an exporting nation, would suffer particularly strongly. Donald Trump could endanger our prosperity, wrote Die Welt.

But Der Spiegel also noted a distinct lack of enthusiasm for Clintons presidency among the German public. The fact that Clintons public appearances can be wooden should not lessen our faith in her. How often has Angela Merkel been accused of a lack of passion? And now she is the most respected leading politician in the world.

The German chancellor herself has barely commented on the presidential race. Having been attacked by Trump for ruining Germany, Merkel has consistently passed on the opportunity to retaliate, though her dislike of political grandstanding is well-known.

Germanys foreign minister, on the other hand, has been more outspoken, doing away with diplomatic protocol when he described Trump in August as a hate preacher. Frank-Walter Steinmeier openly stated he was not neutral on the question of the US presidency, and that listening to the Republican candidates tirades made him frightful of what will happen to this world if he came to power.

Philip Oltermann in Berlin

Italy

In Italy, a country that traditionally has great affection for the US, support for Hillary Clinton runs high, with polls showing that about 63% of Italian voters would support the former secretary of state over Donald Trump.

Italians are well aware that the Republican candidate has been compared to two of the countrys own former leaders: the fascist Benito Mussolini, and Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul who won three elections but who was ultimately brought down by a series of tax and sex scandals.

With the wisdom of hindsight, Trump has been labelled Americas Berlusconi. In La Repubblica, the columnist Vittorio Zucconi said that, notwithstanding the obvious similarities between the two men their hair, their treatment of women as sexual objects, their alleged avoidance of tax both had captured the hearts of a certain class of voters who hate the political establishment. Among these voters, stories about the candidates foibles did nothing to dent their popularity. Both could only be brought down by their own self-destructive tendencies, Zucconi concluded.

Gianni Riotta, the former editor of Il Sole 24 Ore, said that despite being a disastrous prime minister Berlusconi was a more astute politician than Trump has proven to be, having counted both George W Bush and Vladimir Putin as friends. Berlusconi a confirmed billionaire with vast media holdings was also a better businessman, Riotta said.

In Italy, the race for the White House is almost always interpreted through the lens of the countrys own fractured political landscape, and Italys political leaders have not shied away from choosing sides. True to his own centrist instincts, prime minister Matteo Renzi, head of the Democratic party, publicly sided with Hillary Clinton even before she won the Democratic nomination.

On the right, the xenophobic head of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, travelled to the US to lend his support to Donald Trump, while a top official of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement said he would side with Jill Stein, the Green party candidate.

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome

United Kingdom

The Foreign Office is already preparing to breathe a sign of relief if its favoured candidate, Hillary Clinton, romps home: it would mean a reliable president who is more emotionally engaged with Europe, the renewed threat posed by Russia, and a solution to the Syria crisis.

Britain sees its relationship with the US as key to countering the perception that Brexit will lead to a more isolationist UK foreign policy.

Relations between the UK and the US under David Cameron and Barack Obama were never poor, but they were punctuated by bumps: the Commons failure to back military action against Syrias use of chemical weapons in 2013, Camerons risky and ultimately disastrous pledge to stage a referendum on Brexit, and Obamas criticism that the UK and France took their eye off the ball in Libya, allowing the country to descend into chaos. Above all, Obama never seemed able to grasp the impact of the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian war.

As the UK negotiates its departure from the European Union, Clinton will hope that it does not lead to an acrimonious divorce that destabilises the world economy. The softer the Brexit, the happier the White House will be. A President Clinton would also hope Brexit does not lead to a downgrade of Nato, or duplication with a more assertive EU foreign and defence policy. Increasingly Clinton may find herself needing to choose between Britain and Europe, something that will make the Foreign Office distinctly queasy.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has already been manoeuvring to show his personal support for a more muscular Syrian policy in line with Clintons own long-stated support for a no-fly zone. Britain will also be at the front of the queue if she chooses to take a more assertive line with Putin. At present, Britain has been the rhetorical outrider, but it may get some practical backing from the White House. The UK will hope stabilisation of its defence budget, the renewal of Trident nuclear submarines, and its willingness to send troops to the Baltic states will ensure that it remains at the front of the queue when it comes to security cooperation, if not a trade deal.

Patrick Wintour in London

Iraq

Iraq is currently consumed by the battle to retake Mosul from Isis, and preparing for its own elections next year, so the US election has received relatively little attention even though the outcome is likely to be critical to Iraqs future.

Renewed American military and financial support has been key to the fight against Isis, particularly in the current campaign to retake Mosul, the jihadi groups last major stronghold in the country.

Over $1.6bn was provided for training and equipping Iraqi forces in 2016 alone. US special forces troops and air power are providing key support to the broad coalition now marching on the city.

The US also sends hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq for non-military aid, which will be particularly needed in Mosul.

The US defence secretary, Ash Carter, has said he is already in talks about possible support for reconstruction. But Trump has criticised the Mosul operation, and long made clear he wants to reduce foreign aid, particularly to countries he thinks hate the United States.

Resentment about the 2003 invasion and its fallout would probably put Iraq on that list. Clinton by contrast is expected to continue backing Iraq in its fight against Isis, and more broadly.

So Iraqis who are following the election closely are most likely to back a Clinton victory. Even in northern Kurdistan, where Republicans are generally popular, there is little support this year for a man seen locally as a bigot and uncontrollable.

Emma Graham Harrison in Irbil