{"id":895834,"date":"2026-03-31T08:13:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/rubio-seduces-europe-with-imperial-nostalgia\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:13:57","slug":"rubio-seduces-europe-with-imperial-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/rubio-seduces-europe-with-imperial-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio Seduces Europe with Imperial Nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Armed Conflicts<\/a>, Crime & Justice<\/a>, Democracy<\/a>, Economy & Trade<\/a>, Global<\/a>, Global Geopolitics<\/a>, Global Governance<\/a>, Headlines<\/a>, Human Rights<\/a>, TerraViva United Nations<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Opinion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 11 2026 (IPS) <\/span>– US Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s Munich speech<\/a> last month seemed to seduce the European elite behind President Trump, against the \u2018Rest\u2019, especially the resource-rich Global South.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Jomo Kwame Sundaram<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

New international order?<\/strong>
\nRecognising the deliberate \u2018wrecking-ball\u2019 demolition of the post-1945 world order, February\u2019s 62nd Munich Security Conference theme was \u2018Under Destruction\u2019.<\/p>\n

Billed as the world\u2019s leading forum for international security, the conference programme made clear whose interests and security were prioritised. <\/p>\n

In its first year, Trump 2.0 bombed ten nations, besides threatening aggression against four other Latin American nations, but none were represented at Munich! <\/p>\n

The Munich conference shed all pretence of objectivity and diplomacy on Iran, applauding Israeli-led military intervention to overthrow the Islamic Republic. <\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz emphasised the world\u2019s return to great power competition after the post-Cold War \u2018unipolar moment\u2019, making his loyalty clear.<\/p>\n

At Davos in January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney noted that Trump 2.0\u2019s geopolitical \u201crupture\u201d had forced many to abandon earlier illusions.<\/p>\n

Dangerous new trends have been emerging, hardly any \u2018order\u2019. Trump insists US supremacy must be even more dominant, isolating rather than confronting rivals.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

K Kuhaneetha Bai<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In January 2026, the US withdrew from dozens of mainly multilateral organisations. Old rules, even those revised during his first term, are out, alarming many accustomed to them. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s predecessors\u2019 \u2018rules-based order\u2019 had offered a legal and diplomatic fig leaf to subordinate other states to US supremacy.<\/p>\n

Now, Washington repudiates the very framework it demanded others accept, instead of the ostensibly universal but sometimes inconvenient \u2018rule of law\u2019. <\/p>\n

Instead of diplomatic and commercial negotiations, economic and military threats prevail. Without velvet gloves of soft power, the mailed fists of military force and economic weaponry are exposed.<\/p>\n

Reuniting the West<\/strong>
\nRubio welcomed<\/a> this \u201cnew era in geopolitics\u201d, urging better transatlantic relations while reiterating Trump 2.0\u2019s demands for Europe to pay more, albeit more gently. <\/p>\n

After the end of the Cold War, Samuel Huntington\u2019s Clash of Civilizations urged defending the \u2018Judaeo-Christian\u2019 West against the \u2018Rest\u2019, including Catholic Latin America. <\/p>\n

In Munich, Cuban-American Rubio reinvented himself as a White Christian European, warning his European audience that the West is under threat. <\/p>\n

For Rubio, \u201cthe West had been expanding\u201d to \u201csettle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe\u201d over the last five centuries. <\/p>\n

His history obscured Western imperialism\u2019s dispossession, exploitation and slaughter of indigenous peoples worldwide, especially in the Global South. <\/p>\n

Praising the superiority of European civilisation and values, he lamented setbacks to these \u201cgreat Western empires\u201d due to \u201cgodless communist\u201d and \u201canti-colonial\u201d uprisings after the Second World War.<\/p>\n

Rather than progress inspired by the 1776 US Declaration and War of Independence, for Rubio, national self-determination was a civilisational setback. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West\u2019s managed decline\u201d. For Rubio, no more \u2018liberal\u2019 human rights, freedom and democracy rhetoric. <\/p>\n

He did not hesitate to invoke racist, white supremacist mythology and crusader ideology to demand stronger militaries to defend Western civilisation. <\/p>\n

The renewed Western alliance will share their common civilisational identity, bound by \u201cChristian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry\u201d. <\/p>\n

Ethno-chauvinistic beliefs about race, religion and culture are the new bases for solidarity and authority. \u2018Defending Christians\u2019 became the pretext for the US 2025 Christmas Day bombing of Nigeria. <\/p>\n

Another Western century?<\/strong>
\nRubio appealed for pan-European Western unity against multilateralism and other threats, calling for increased military spending and immigration controls.<\/p>\n

He urged Europe to \u201ctake back control\u201d of \u2018Western\u2019 industries and supply chains. After all, NATO allies have joined the US in seizing foreign assets at will. <\/p>\n

Vassal-like and desperate for reassurance after a year of Trump\u2019s blatant contempt and threats, the audience welcomed his speech with a standing ovation. <\/p>\n

Fearing Washington might negotiate with Moscow over Ukraine without them, European leaders have intensified demands for all-out war against Russia. <\/p>\n

Rubio is working to secure critical minerals supplies against \u201cextortion from other powers\u201d, including Europe, through opaque bilateral agreements secured with threats.<\/p>\n

Trump 2.0 is making military threats for profit, including post-war ownership, mining and other rights. For many, NATO\u2019s US-Europe divide is not over peace, but rather sharing Ukraine war costs and spoils. <\/p>\n

While funding for European welfare states and other \u2018social\u2019 purposes continues to fall, military budgets continue to spike, as demanded by Trump. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Merz has invoked military Keynesianism to justify Germany\u2019s largest-ever military budget since the Cold War<\/a>, aimed at strengthening NATO.<\/p>\n

Ostensibly to strengthen national security, the Trump administration has cut social programmes. Instead, US military spending is being prioritised. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the US Congress has shown support by approving a larger War Department budget than the Pentagon requested. <\/p>\n

Armaments contracts have mainly benefited established companies, while the \u2018tech bros<\/a>\u2019 increasingly supply newer weapons and related systems using artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

Following Trump, the European elites are strengthening their already powerful militaries and securing commercial deals for their own advantage, rather than defending the peaceful multilateral cooperation they once advocated.<\/p>\n

IPS UN Bureau<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Kuhaneetha Bai Kalaicelvan
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed Conflicts, Crime & Justice, Democracy, Economy & Trade, Global, Global Geopolitics, Global Governance, Headlines, Human Rights, TerraViva United Nations Opinion KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 11 2026 (IPS) – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s Munich speech last month seemed to seduce the European elite behind President Trump, against the \u2018Rest\u2019, especially the resource-rich Global<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":895835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58556,148538],"tags":[8759,148537],"class_list":{"0":"post-895834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rubio","8":"category-seduces","9":"tag-rubio","10":"tag-seduces"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}