Europe is at a crossroads. To save itself and our cherished transatlantic alliance, it must not only change policy but also recommit to the shared legacy of Western civilization.
That was the message that Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered this weekend at the Munich Security Conference in a decisive speech on the foreign policy of our time.
In an affair known mostly for platitudes and navel-gazing, he identified the roots of Europe’s decline and provided a clear vision for how America and its European allies can once again unite to preserve the most important alliance in human history. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
The NATO alliance, formed in the shadow of the Iron Curtain, has underpinned American, European and even global security for decades. It stopped the advance of communism. It brought peace to a continent reeling from centuries of brutal warfare. It reunited Europe.
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It is an alliance bound by sacrifice and history. Like generations of American soldiers before and since, I fought alongside our NATO allies in the 82nd Airborne, invading Iraq with a French unit at the start of the first Gulf War. And when America was attacked on September 11, our NATO allies answered our call. They shed blood in the mountains of Afghanistan and the streets of Iraq alongside our young men and women in uniform.
That bond remains, but, Secretary Rubio warned, it has weakened as our allies have pursued a policy of managed decline. They have crippled their productive capacity with so-called “green energy policies,” allowed deindustrialization to neutralize their defense capabilities, and neglected the fabric of their own societies through massive, uncontrolled immigration. They have failed to fulfill their commitments in the alliance, and the marriage between the United States and Europe must now be repaired.
However, the roots of the decline go deeper than policy choices, into the soul of Western society. Secretary Rubio sees this truth and that is why all Americans should hear his speech.
The comments remind us of what leaders in the United States and across Europe must defend: a sacred legacy from the forefathers of Western civilization, the civilization that gave us Beethoven, established the rule of law, built the Sistine Chapel, preserved a rich philosophical tradition and got us to the moon – but which now faces serious and existential threats.
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It is this shared bond of history and cultural heritage – alongside the cold reality of geopolitics – that holds our nations together. No vague abstractions, powerless international organizations or even transatlantic trade.
Our European allies have forgotten this fact. Too often they have traded national interest and hard power for vague and moralistic appeals to international institutions and a bloated welfare state. The Trump Administration, as expressed in Secretary Rubio’s speech, has rejected this failed status quo and defended an honest, hard-nosed view of foreign policy designed to advance our national interests.
Under President Donald Trump, this administration has put that policy into practice. It has reaffirmed American sovereignty and our country’s exceptional role as a leader on the world stage. American leadership, not the United Nations or any other international body, has brought peace to the Middle East, overthrown Iran’s nuclear program and ended the reign of a narco-terrorist dictator.
This is not a divorce from Europe, a withdrawal from the world stage or an abdication of America’s role as world leader. Nor is it the misleading doctrine of internationalists eager to spend blood and money to export the ideology to distant lands. It is a sober understanding of the realities of power and what it will take to secure the United States and Europe as we face a changing world together.
Secretary Rubio’s speech marks a defining moment for the US-led world order. Just as crucially, it serves as a powerful call to arms for the West’s champions to defend a shared civilization with a beautiful past – and a future to be fulfilled by an alliance built on this deep and enduring bond.
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I trust that many in Europe will heed the call. On a recent visit to Norway, Finland, Estonia and Denmark with some of my colleagues in the US Senate, we met leaders laser-focused on rebuilding their hard power, deterring the Russian bear on their borders and restoring the heart and soul of the NATO alliance. Many of those I spoke to understood what is at stake. They had learned the hard lessons of the war in Ukraine and Europe’s inept response.
I hope these voices will trumpet Secretary Rubio and “be unapologetic about our heritage and proud of this common heritage.”
CLICK HERE TO VAN SEN. DAVID McCMORICK
