Katerina Mansour
       Staff Writer

When contemplating the US’s biggest threat, my mind doesn’t immediately jump to things like terrorism, as it might for many.

No, my mind tends to think of the US itself as its own worst enemy and biggest threat. What I mean, really, is that the intense nationalism and ethnocentrism of the American population, and by extension their government, is incredibly dangerous for the country’s future.

If history has taught us anything, it is that nationalism is a dangerous driving force.

After all, nationalism was arguably one of the main factors that led to World War II. America’s nationalism has grown so strong that it has created a flux of hatred toward foreigners and the outside world that has so much range and scope throughout the country that Donald Trump will likely be our next president.

If Trump becomes President, we will rapidly reach a point where both US and global citizens will become so fed up with the US’s domestic and foreign policies that civil uprisings will most likely occur and foreign ties will quickly become severed.

This ethnocentric, nationalist, isolationist mentality cannot survive in the globalized world. The US’s constant disregard for its own nation’s broad population of non-Christians and non-whites and their equal place in this country will ultimately erupt into violence as the oppressed can only remain silent for so long before something’s got to give.

The US’s ethnocentric mentality and over-zealous nationalism also plays a huge part in the way the international world views this country.

Many citizens from around the world feel increasingly hostile towards the US, which often extends to the feelings and policies of their governments. This, of course, can lead to an end in cordial relationships. Constant embargos, sanctions and other punishments from the US onto other countries in the world paints an image of the US as a world bully.

Furthermore, the vision of the US as the “savior” of the world, the international police and the fixer-upper of the developing world’s economies is a dangerous one to have.

The country has increasingly placed itself as the hegemon of the world on all levels, and because of this it attempts to involve itself with every country’s business, whether its help or involvement is wanted or not.

Needless to say, this continuous worldwide involvement also costs the US billions of dollars. But, more importantly, since the Bretton Woods conference and the creation of organizations, such as the IMF and the World Bank, the US has been constantly trying to convert the rest of the world to its own ways.

We keep hearing politicians make speeches about how our democratic system is the “right” way to go, our neo-liberal policies are the “right” way to run a country and its economy, our beliefs are the “right” ones. Yet, who is the US to say what is right and what is wrong?

This country most certainly cannot be the world’s moral compass, with all the corruption and war in which it has been involved.

The US economy certainly hasn’t been booming as of late. And it has trillions of dollars of debt.

Yet, the US sees itself as the victorious model that the rest of the world should be following, and anyone who refuses to follow this liberal model is no friend of ours.

The US views itself as the righteous power, the one the entire world should trust with nuclear power, while nobody else could ever be permitted to have any without it becoming a national threat.

It views itself as the ultimate mediator of foreign conflict, as if somehow the US has the “right” answer to everyone’s problems. Clearly, as time has shown, it does not.

The US has placed itself in this perceived sense of power, which it views as being threatened by any country attempting to reach the same level.

China is a great fear because of its new place in the global economy. Anyone who could potentially beat America at its own game is a threat that must be stopped.

How about we stop worrying so much about our place in the world and simply focus on ways to better the lives of our citizens and maintain healthy ties with the international world?

Ruthless capitalism, violent warfare, and the playground attitude of “you can’t have this unless I don’t want it” are not what are going to keep America at the top.

If the US does not become a more tolerant, diplomatic and cooperative nation, it will eventually suffer as a result. The American way of life will soon lose the meager remains of appeal it still has.

The country is already perceived to have waged a war against the Middle East, a region where extremists are responding to what America is dishing out. The developing world often sees the US as an exploitative power that drains the Global South in order to further its own gains.

We cannot keep bullying the rest of the world and expect to simply remain at the top, unharmed and eternally prosperous.

A storm is brewing, and Trump’s rise to power is one of the many manifestations of these problems.