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Obama warns nationalism will bring greater global clashes

In this image, Obama sits in a chair and waves to the audience while smiling and speaking into a microphone.
Barack Obama on April 03, 2019 in Seville, Spain. Photo: Marcelo del Pozo/Getty Images

Former President Obama warned during a recent appearance in Europe that nationalistic forces rising around the world will spark "greater and greater conflict and greater and greater clashes between peoples."

What he's saying: Obama said that "nationalism, nativism, xenophobia, anti-immigration [sentiments] ... are dangerous traits."

  • "That's largest trend that I'm seeing that I'm concerned about, because it's not isolated to one particular country — it's a global phenomenon."
  • Obama — speaking earlier this month in Seville, Spain, in remarks posted this weekend by the BBC — said it's a mistake to "reassert these very hard-fixed borders at a time when technology and information are borderless," and travel and supply chains are global."
  • He also said he is "worried about the destabilization of our environment," adding "climate change is not something off in the future."

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Barack Obama