OPINION:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Oct. 7 speech at the Pnyx in Athens, Greece, with the Acropolis as its backdrop, should be mandatory reading for high school and college civics classes.
“And now, there is war again,” he said. “There is new competition between great powers again. There is vulnerability, aggression, terrorism, a whole universe of new threats and attacks again. And so we must rebuild our institutions and our alliances to face these threats together.”
Mr. Rubio’s message was clear: Western nations are at a critical point, facing a choice between maintaining global leadership and sliding into “atrophy and servitude and decline.”
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Francesco Sisci, a sinologist and director of the Appia Institute, says America is failing to exercise leadership and is pushing Europeans toward China.
Recent surveys across Europe show shifting views among Europeans toward the U.S. and China. Trust in the U.S. alliance and traditional trans-Atlantic ties has dropped significantly, while in some European nations, public favorability toward Chinese leadership has occasionally edged higher than views of U.S. leadership.
Some of this can be attributed to the U.S. pivot to Asia during Barack Obama’s presidency, which many Europeans interpreted as a shift away from the trans-Atlantic relationship.
This pushed Europe toward a China that projected a message of success with modern technologies and new infrastructure.
However, the Europeans discovered drawbacks to dealing with China. China’s currency, the renminbi, is not freely convertible, restricting cross-border movement of investments, stocks, bonds, real estate and loans.
China’s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea are issues of concern in Europe, as is China’s support for Russia and Iran.
On Friday, the European Union and China reached a landmark interim trade agreement to curb the influx of Chinese hybrid vehicles, avoiding a full-scale trade war. They established a 16-point consensus aimed at balancing an unsustainable European trade deficit with China.
Another European concern is the rise of right-wing populist and nationalist parties. This trend is highlighted by the Alternative for Germany party’s successes in eastern states such as Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
Many view this shift as a critical threat to EU solidarity and democratic institutions, while hard-right factions celebrate it as a democratic mandate against failed mainstream policies.
The shift is driven by sharp economic anxieties, intense anti-immigration sentiment and a perceived detachment of the ruling coalition in Berlin. This has normalized AfD support across a broad segment of voters, especially among young people.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has formally designated the AfD branches in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt as “confirmed right-wing extremist” organizations.
Centrist governments in Europe are alarmed by the pro-Russian, anti-NATO, anti-Ukraine-aid rhetoric from groups such as the AfD. With more than a quarter of European voters supporting hard-right platforms, centrist governments warn that the Western alliance’s united front against external geopolitical threats is under siege.
The AfD’s eastern factions reportedly have ties to radical extremist and neo-Nazi elements, motivating Marine Le Pen in France to distance her National Rally party from the AfD and expel the AfD from the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament — a move that led Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy to also distance her party from the AfD.
Despite this, far-right populist parties across 31 European nations are gaining momentum, with approximately 23% of the electorate voting for them.
Even the Vatican is concerned about this shift, Mr. Sisci said, as the current far right is viewed by many as heirs to the fascists. The U.S., Mr. Sisci said, must be at the center of these geopolitical discussions, with strong U.S. leadership. Without it, there will be chaos.
As Mr. Rubio said in Greece: “Ours is the inheritance of great heroes, and … we should be proud … of where we come from. We should marvel at what our forefathers carved out of this countryside.”
• The author is a former associate director of national intelligence. All statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the U.S. government.
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