Manifest destiny is a term that we associate with a less enlightened time in our history. The idea behind it is that the expansion and progression of the United States and its interests was a God-given duty and right of the American people. The term was coined in the mid-1800s, but the country had been operating from the beginning with "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven", as Frederick Merk once said. The idea has since been reevaluated, as it represents some pretty outdated ideas, yet you look at governments around the world and see it now more than ever.
We begin with the birthplace of the mindset; the United States. Though we see ourselves as far removed from the government having deep roots in religion, you can see it clearly in campaign speeches, abortion legislation, and even immigration. These recurring themes of God and being on the side of moral and spiritual superiority seems to still be a big part of the Republican arsenal. Moreover, Trump's America First motto resides in the same vein. The ideas of the sentiment basically place the success of America above all else, but it does this through a series of rather counter-intuitive and even detrimental moves in the sphere of foreign affairs and fiscal policy. The dismantling of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal as well as the Paris Agreement, cementing his dedication to severing ties with foreign countries, and putting what he believes will lead to a less connected and somehow more successful country.
This is not the only case of countries operating under the guise of Manifest Destiny. Britain has also adopted an isolationist view regarding the recent influx of immigrants from the middle east, particularly Muslims. The argument may not explicitly be about their faith and concerns the social and economic effects, but there is this underlying sense that this new group of foreigners are not apart of the destiny of the country. The fittingly and familiarly named Britain First, an alt-right fascist group, has a very clear message, a large following, and two leaders who were recently jailed for hate crimes against Muslims .
The worst example of Manifest Destiny as far as I can see however is in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The summary of the conflict is that two groups took their religious beliefs, and turned them into a strong sense of nationalism. These Jewish and Arab sects have been fighting a series of bloody conflicts since the early 20th century. During the 1940s, Israel pushed the Palestinians out of what was once their land, and the friction escalated even further. Now, in 2018 the Israeli government is using nationalism, which stems from a religious ideology, to commit war crimes against the people of Palestine, and Palestine is fighting back with unsanctioned guerilla war tactics. It's not an easy fix, and certainly deciding who's right is difficult, but that isn't the issue.
The issue is how countries who have used nationalism and ideas of being in the religious right can operate. It creates an us-versus-them mentality, and that mentality has been the catalyst for holy wars, massacres and other travesties that don't have any place in a world that considers itself to be modern. If it continues, it will incubate and we will see a resurgence of political instability that could've been all but completely avoided.
