Through his words, the Trump administration signaled a war against multipolarity.
On Feb. 14, during the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech that marks a milestone in the history of the international order after World War II.
For him, the West appears as a “victim” of its own decline, which the United States and its allies must now prevent.
For five centuries before 1945, the West dominated globally with missionaries, soldiers and explorers. But “everything changed,” he said in a narrative that portrayed decolonization as a “communist plot” that destroyed the Western civilization’s hegemony.
If Rubio received applause from Europeans for statements such as those, criticism of his position quickly emerged on social media.
“Rather than adjusting to multipolarity, Rubio hints at restoring the empire and invites America’s European vassals to join the U.S. This reads as a declaration of war on multipolarity and sovereign equality,” said Glenn Diesen, a professor of geopolitics and geoeconomics.
A Synthesis of the U.S. Imperial Vision
During his address at the Munich Security Conference, Rubio presented a detailed view of how conservative forces backing President Donald Trump conceive of the contemporary world.
One of the excerpts most circulated on social media, summarizing the MAGA vision of the international order, was the following:
“This is the path that President Trump and the United States has embarked upon. It is the path we ask you here in Europe to join us on. It is a path we have walked together before and hope to walk together again.
For five centuries, before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding — its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe.
But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, it was contracting. Europe was in ruins. Half of it lived behind an Iron Curtain and the rest looked like it would soon follow.
The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.
Against that backdrop, then as now, many came to believe that the West’s age of dominance had come to an end and that our future was destined to be a faint and feeble echo of our past.
But together, our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice, and it was a choice they refused to make. This is what we did together once before, and this is what President Trump and the United States want to do again now, together with you.
And this is why we do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker. We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength.
This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization, and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it.
And this is why we do not want allies to rationalize the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it, for we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.
We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history. What we want is a reinvigorated alliance that recognizes that what has ailed our societies is not just a set of bad policies but a malaise of hopelessness and complacency.
An alliance — the alliance that we want — is one that is not paralyzed into inaction by fear — fear of climate change, fear of war, fear of technology. Instead, we want an alliance that boldly races into the future.
And the only fear we have is the fear of the shame of not leaving our nations prouder, stronger, and wealthier for our children.”
Europe, Between Submission and Autonomy
Although figures such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., warned that the standing ovation for Rubio reveals the European leadership’s weakness, the reaction was unexpectedly accommodating.
Van Hollen denounced the speech as a call for a “Trumpist lobotomy” that abandons universalist values for “blood and soil” nationalisms.
In an analysis for CNN, Nick Paton Walsh noted with irony that Europe appears trapped in “couples therapy” with the United States after a declining political marriage.
The organizers of the Munich Security Conference had previously warned that the continent was being sidelined from global decision-making. European leaders showed little resistance to the remarks of the Trump administration official.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized only MAGA “culture wars” but did not question the imperial vision openly conveyed by Rubio. French President Emmanuel Macron equated territorial sovereignty with his country’s right to control disinformation.
China Warns of Catastrophic Consequences
Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, responded directly to Rubio’s speech with a clear message.
“Some people (in the United States) are still trying by all means to contain and suppress China,” he said, recalling that the Chinese nation identified Rubio as a real threat to its development.
“Washington’s approach treats China as an enemy, not as a partner,” the Chinese diplomat warned, outlining two possible scenarios: cooperation or confrontation.
“The rational option — diplomacy and partnership — benefits both China and the world. The irrational one — economic decoupling, supply chain fragmentation, separation of Taiwan — puts peace at risk.”
For the Chinese foreign minister, current geopolitical problems do not originate so much in the failures of multilateral institutions as in the ambition of certain powerful countries to place themselves above others.
“The reason the international system fails is not the United Nations, but that some countries exaggerate differences and revive Cold War mentalities,” Wang said firmly, adding that Rubio’s position on Taiwan generated particular concern.
“Separating the island would cross a red line that would likely lead to conflict… Why insist on destructive competition when we can build together?,” he warned.
A Rhetoric That Revives the Past
Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian Foreign Secretary who is now a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, expressed concern over Rubio’s speech.
“This is effectively an ideological attack against the rest of the world. Rubio is constructing a new type of empire in which Washington would be the absolute owner of the international order,” he said, warning of a dangerous strategy.
“Washington wants the world to accept its single version of history, completely ignoring other perspectives,” he stressed.
Rubio does not speak of cooperation — he speaks of dominance. Instead of proposing a multilateral order, he presents a narrative in which the United States would be the sole global arbiter.
What happened in Munich marked a point of no return. Rubio offered submission under another name. By constructing a narrative in which Washington would be the sole guardian of the international order, he transformed the Atlantic alliance into a question of submission or independence.
Global historical tensions are returning with modernized imperialisms aimed against any alternative to their dominance.
In this context, Europe is compelled to choose between continuity with an imperial past or a rupture with the very roots of the Western order.
“To save itself and the trans-Atlantic alliance, Europe must not only change policy — it must recover its autonomy before it loses its soul,” The Guardian said.
In this context, Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, declared her loyalty to the security system the United States controls through NATO.
“Let us not waste time talking about new things when we must strengthen our armies, doing so together in our European way,” she said, accepting the terms imposed by Washington.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – The Guardian – AP – DoS
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