A ruling class of an imperial nation must always convince its citizens that its aggressive actions are always legitimate. Whenever another nation stands in the way of its imperial ambitions by objecting to their actions, such nations become a target. To do this, they often portray the other nation as a threat. The author in this article explains how the Empire currently uses this ruse in the face of startlingly contradictory facts, and comes to this conclusion:
...we should look critically at the validity of any media or politicians claims in relation to the existence of an outside threat, we should understand that the US is the world’s largest and quite possible will be the only truly global, hegemonic superpower, and that a superpower of this magnitude, and power systems in general, necessitate a perceived outside threat as a means of mobilizing popular support for imperialistic military ventures, as well as to justify the containment of other powers, the domination of strategic regions, and the acquisition of resources conducive to global power and influence.