With the utmost respect, I disagree. In my experience, the average American seems much less knowledgable about the rest of the world when compared with Western

With the utmost respect, I disagree. In my experience, the average American seems much less knowledgable about the rest of the world when compared with Western Europeans/Canadians/Australians/Kiwis. To be fair, it's not that they are less intelligent, it seems to be because they are less exposed to, and perhaps less interested in, other cultures/countries. A huge part of that is geographic isolation and American cultural/media "dominance".