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In a bold Munich address, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges Europe to reject globalism, restore sovereignty, and revive Christian-rooted Western civilisation alongside America’s renewal.

If Marco Rubio’s Munich speech didn’t ignite a turning point in the West this week, nothing human probably will.

This was Reagan good, and the United States Secretary of State should be congratulated for delivering it.

Unsurprisingly, Rubio’s 22-minute Security Conference address rode the major themes of faith and gratitude.

Both of these are key ingredients to the fresh optimism baked into the Trump administration’s 250^th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the United States.

Carrying this fresh optimism, Rubio delivered a clear invitation for the EU to join the United States in restoring the West.

Fundamental to this was a firm rejection of Communism and its “foolish” globalist euphemistic cousin, the “global welfare state.”

Here are twelve takeaways:

1. Globalism is arrogance personified

Drawing on Christianity and the shared history between the United States and Europe, Rubio reminded the security conference of the disaster that came from forgetting how evil the Soviet Union was.

Our “euphoric triumph in defeating this evil empire,” he said, “led to the dangerous delusion that we had entered ‘the end of history’.”

The belief was that globalism, “trade, commerce, and the rules-based global order — an overused term — would now replace national interest.”

This “was a foolish idea that ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of history and human nature.”

“It has cost us dearly,” Rubio explained.

2. Deindustrialisation is destroying the West

“Under this delusion, the West deindustrialised and shipped millions of working and middle-class jobs overseas, handing control of our critical supply chains to adversaries and rivals.”

“We increasingly outsourced our sovereignty to international institutions, while many nations invested in massive welfare states at the cost of maintaining the ability to defend themselves.”

“To appease a climate cult,” Rubio added, “we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people.”

3. Western societies won’t survive mass immigration

Addressing open borders, the US Secretary of State asserted,

“In a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration.”

This “threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people.”

Rubio then said, “We made these mistakes together.”

“Now, we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward, to rebuild.”

4. Mistakes and the mass mismanagement of them can be fixed

“Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration,” Rubio stated.

If necessary, “the US will do this alone.”

Emphasising a conciliatory tone, Rubio added that the US hopes the EU would join them, stating that, “the United States and Europe belong together.”

The roots of America are found here – “We are part of one civilisation, Western civilisation.”

“We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share.”

5. Christian Europe must survive

He continued with this theme, adding that this bond was “forged by centuries of shared history, the Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry and the sacrifices of our forefathers.”

America can be blunt at times, Rubio said, “because we deeply care.”

We are concerned “about your future and ours.”

“If at times we disagree, our disagreements come from our profound sense of concern about a Europe with which we are connected.”

That connection is “not just economic, or militarily, we are connected spiritually, and we are connected culturally.”

“We believe that Europe must survive,” avowed Rubio.

“The two great wars of the last century serve for us as history’s constant reminder that ultimately our destiny is and will always be intertwined with yours.”

6. Western Civilisation is worth saving

Leaning into his next point, Rubio affirmed the importance of the Christian faith, culture and the unbreakable link between America and Europe, saying,

“The fundamental question we must answer at the outset is what exactly are we defending?”

“Because armies do not fight for abstractions. Armies fight for a people. Armies fight for a nation,” he explained.

“Armies fight for a way of life. And that is what we are defending.”

“It was this continent that produced the genius of Mozart and Beethoven, of Dante and Shakespeare, of Michelangelo and Da Vinci, of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.”

“And this,” Rubio said, “is the place where the vaulted ceilings of the Sistine Chapel and the towering spires of the great cathedral in Cologne.”

These achievements “testify not just to the greatness of our past or to a faith in God that inspired these marvels.”

“They foreshadow the wonders that await us in our future.”

7. Open borders emboldened enemies

This future can only be released, Rubio said, if “we are unapologetic in our heritage and proud of this common inheritance.”

“Deindustrialisation was never inevitable, and the foolish loss of supply chain sovereignty” can be reversed.

This foolishness, he argued, “voluntarily transformed our economy, leaving us dependent on others for our needs and dangerously vulnerable to crisis.”

Such as “mass immigration.”

Open borders created a crisis that is “destabilising societies across the West.”

Together, he said, this can also be fixed.

8. Borders are biblical

Raising the prospect of a new alliance not just centred on military cooperation, but on revitalising Western civilisation, Rubio called for a new Western century.

“Together, we can re-industrialise our economies and rebuild our capacity to defend our people.”

“We can prosper in the areas that will define the 21st century. We must also gain control of our national borders.”

The US Secretary of State clarified,

“This is not an expression of xenophobia. It is not hate. It is a fundamental act of national sovereignty.”

“The failure to do so,” Rubio remarked, “is not just an abdication of one of our most basic duties owed to our people.”

“It is an urgent threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilisation itself.”

“We can no longer place the so-called global order above the vital interests of our people and our nations.”

9. Restoration is more than possible

Speaking about reform, Rubio said that there was no need to dismantle what had been built together.

“These must be rebuilt.”

For example, the United Nations. It has “potential yet continues to provide no answers and play no vital role for good in the world.”

He then added, “We do not live in a perfect world. So, we cannot continue to allow blatant and open threats against our citizens.”

Nor can we let these entities who “endanger our global stability, to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law which they themselves routinely violate.”

Inviting the EU to walk this path together again, Rubio said, this is the path President Trump has embarked upon.

10. Managed decline is no longer an option

“Decline is a choice,” he added, and decline was a choice that our predecessors who held the line against the acceleration of godless Communist revolutions 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.”

“This is why we do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker.”

“We want allies who can defend themselves,” Rubio said, “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.”

Allies “who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilisation, and who together with us are willing and able to defend it.”

Here, Rubio asserted that “the United States has no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.”

11. Western Civilisation is a gift, not guilt

The Transatlantic alliance is not dead, he declared.

“We do not seek to separate. We seek to revitalise an old friendship and renew Western civilisation.”

That means reinvigorating the alliance, Rubio qualified.

The goal is to rebuild “an alliance that is not paralysed by fear: Fear of climate change, fear of war, fear of technology.”

This alliance should defend and empower our children, “not operate a global welfare state that atones for the so-called sins of past generations.”

Additionally, Rubio stated, this should be “an alliance based on the recognition that what we, the West, have inherited together is something that is unique and distinctive and irreplaceable.”

“Acting together in this way, we will not just help recover a sane foreign policy. It will restore to us a clearer sense of ourselves.”

12. The uniqueness of Christian Forgiveness unites us

“Together, we rebuilt the shattered continent in the wake of two devastating world wars,” affirmed Rubio.

“When we found ourselves divided once again by the Iron Curtain, the free West linked arms with the courageous dissident struggling against Communist tyranny.”

“We have fought against each other, then reconciled, then fought, then reconciled again. And we have bled and died side by side on battlefields,” he further explained.

“I am here today to leave it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity.”

“We want to do it together with you,” Rubio concluded.

“With a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history. With a Europe that has the spirit of creation and liberty.”

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.