Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a fascinatingly contradictory message at the annual Munich Security Conference. He declared that the United States and Europe “belong together” while simultaneously ripping apart the very economic and political foundations that define the modern Western alliance.
Though he aimed to unify the Western alliance, Rubio used his keynote address to condemn several hallmarks of globalization, per the Washington Post. He staunchly criticized open borders, mass migration, unfettered free trade, and what he called “deindustrialization.” Rubio showed similar disdain for policies designed to reduce carbon emissions and lauded unilateral U.S. military actions in the Middle East and Latin America.
