No, the United States isn’t on the verge of civil war

As the US enters the final straight of what has been — to put it mildly — a highly unusual election campaign, something akin to panic is taking hold among observers on both sides of the Atlantic. The premise is that the United States is in a highly fragile state, that the election could easily tip it into widespread violence, and that the social and political divisions currently dubbed the ‘culture wars’ could escalate into a real war.

One scenario suggests blood on the streets were Donald Trump and his supporters to resist defeat. A respected think tank, the International Crisis Group, which usually analyses places such as Somalia has explained that it is currently focusing on ‘the risk of violence surrounding the US elections’. Reuters is equipping its reporters in the United States with flak jackets, helmets and gas masks. There is even a strand of academic opinion saying that the country has never been as dangerously polarised since 1860 — the eve of the American civil war.