Munich Security Conference 2026
Rubio Calls for a New ‘Civilisational’ Alliance with Europe

German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius engaging in a firm handshake with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the 2026 Munich Security Conference.

Marc Conzelmann/MSC

The annual Munich Security Conference is the largest, and perhaps most important, get-together of the who’s who in international politics. Last year, it was the speech by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance that made headlines. 

In what most Europeans perceived as “the opening salvo in a trans-Atlantic divorce proceeding”, or at least “a blistering attack”,  Vance lectured Europe on free speech and democratic values, warning of an “enemy from within” more dangerous than external threats. It was a stunning turn of the tables, as Europeans had long criticised President Trump’s attitude towards democracy and the rule of law. 

French President Emmanuel Macron in conversation with Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.

Jan Zappner/MSC

America thinks Europe is beset by censorship, economic decline, and “civilisational erasure”

The Vice President’s words echoed throughout 2026: during the public confrontation with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House, the imposition of tariffs on European partners, and in the new U.S. National Security Strategy declaring Washington would oppose “elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe”.  

The National Security Strategy, released in November, further painted an image of Europe being in “economic decline” and facing “civilisational erasure”. It accused the EU of undermining political liberty and sovereignty, of censorship and suppression of political opposition, of cratering birthrates and of the loss of national identities. Above all, the document singled out migration policies as a culprit in transforming the continent. 

Relations hit a new low when Trump laid claim to Greenland, a territory belonging to Denmark, an EU member state. This crisis was only defused by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who, during these intense weeks, told European parliamentarians to abandon hopes of defence independence from the U.S. “Keep on dreaming”, Rutte sneered. 

Lulling Europeans into standing ovation: a diplomatic stunt by Marco Rubio

Secretary of State and U.S. National Security Adviser: Marco Rubio's speech at the Munich Security Conference 2026 differed in tone from that of Vice President J.D. Vance in the previous year, but repeated the same tropes laid out in the U.S. National Security Strategy.

Thomas Niedermueller/MSC

Against this backdrop, and with Vance’s 2025 speech still in mind, this year’s appearance of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was highly anticipated. Although he didn’t say anything that hadn’t already been expressed in the National Security Strategy or by Trump and Vance earlier, he surprisingly received standing ovations, including from the German ministers of foreign affairs and defence. 

Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, then spoke of a “sigh of relief”, thanking Rubio for a “message of reassurance, of partnership”. 

But what did Rubio say that made his European audience feel ‘relieved’? A closer look shows that this might have been a perfect case of diplomacy, where it was not the “what” but the “how” that mattered – and what was not said. Perhaps, the conference audience was even deceived by Rubio’s measured words and storytelling. 

Couched in an appealing story of shared American and European history and cultural bonds, Rubio provided his European listeners, in part, what they were desperate to hear: 

“In a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish – because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe,” Rubio said. 

The West against the rest: Rubio calls on Europeans to join American civilisationism

“Child of Europe” – Vance’s speech in 2025 had lacked such charming references, although it also highlighted shared values. Yet, though he avoided direct criticism of Europe, Rubio did not veer from the previous Vance/Trump script, including the trope of “civilisational erasure”. Rubio actually repeated what had been written in the National Security Strategy and – in what was understood as an extended arm in Munich – called on the Europeans to join the U.S. in a new form of Western alliance which is characterised by blunt civilisationism, not the lofty liberalism of the past. 

Jakov Milatović, President of Montenegro, used the forum of the Munich Security Conference to question German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the EU's enlargement process.

Steffen Boettcher/MSC

Indeed, Samuel P. Huntington’s seminal “Clash of Civilizations” may serve as a framework for analysis of Rubio’s speech in future university seminars. For Rubio did not refer to the liberal institutionalism or the shared history of enlightenment – Kant, Franklin, Wilson – but pronounced Christianity and cultural heritage. 

This trope permeated his speech from beginning to end, with Rubio using the term “civilisation” about a dozen times, mostly in connection with “survival”, “greatness”, and “Western”. Christian culture and missionaries, classic artists such as Mozart and Da Vinci, as well as pop cultural icons – the Beatles and Rolling Stones – served as points of reference. Moreover, Rubio did not invoke any philosophers or emancipatory movements; he even cast the anti-colonial movements after 1945 in a bad light of “godless communist revolutions” that transformed the world and replaced the “great Western empires”.

Rubio did not remind his audience of the darker sides of history. Dismissing this as “shame” and “guilt”, he said: 

“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.”

Spoke out against nuclear rearmament: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the Munich Security Conference 2026.

Philipp Schulze/MSC

A poisoned offer to join an American remake of world order

And the rules-based order? “An overused term.” Free trade? “A dogmatic vision” that resulted in deindustrialisation and the handing over of supply chains to adversaries. International institutions? They stand in the way of sovereign nation states. Climate change? For Rubio, “a climate cult.” The United Nations? Unable to solve the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, or to constrain Iran’s nuclear programme or drug trafficking. (Instead, it had needed American precision bombers and special forces in Venezuela.)  Migration? “[W]as and continues to be a crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West,” according to Rubio. 

Probably it was Rubio’s statement that the West would not need to abandon the old system of international cooperation, nor dismantle global institutions altogether, that reassured the Munich audience. Europeans heard the Secretary of State pointing to many challenges that have also caused shifts in their own countries, including on trade dependencies and migration. That may have resonated. Much welcomed was his call to join “the path that President Trump and the United States has embarked upon” and the invitation to “rebuild” the international system together – “to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history.”

Those Europeans cheering in standing ovation, however, missed that this was a poisoned offer. 

Although the speech reassured that the U.S. wants Europe as an ally, Rubio, once again, made it clear that this partnership would happen on American terms, that Washington was prepared to go it alone, “if necessary”. Yet it is not a given that Europeans will identify themselves with the civilisational foreign policy outlined by Rubio (that would require the likes of Le Pen and AfD in power). 

Merz’s rebuff of the MAGA movement: A new partnership based on shared interests and necessity, not “esoteric” foundations

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that, reportedly, a disclosed, longer version of the U.S. National Security Strategy laid out a vision to divide Europe on ideological grounds, to pull away Hungary, Italy, Austria and Poland from the European Union. Fittingly, as media reports unveiled, the U.S. government is working on funding MAGA-aligned think tanks and far-right political groups. 

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission: "I believe the time has come to bring Europe's mutual defence clause to life."

Johannes Krey/MSC

It thus did not surprise that Rubio, after speaking in Munich, continued his Europe trip to meet with leaders in Hungary and Slovakia.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a day earlier, had already anticipated Vance’s and Rubio’s ‘values-based’ approach, stating, “A chasm, a deep divide, has opened up between Europe and the United States. […] The culture wars of the MAGA movement in the USA are not ours.” His speech also contrasted with Rubio’s in its refusal of tariffs and protectionism, as well as in its defence of climate policies. 

Urging for a new transatlantic partnership nonetheless, Merz refused an “esoteric” foundation. Instead, the German chancellor reminded the conference of the limits of American power and stressed pragmatic interests that would unite America and a stronger Europe. 

In the end, Merz’s speech provided a better, much more sober guide for the transatlantic relationship, and should eventually prevail over the wishful thinking Rubio’s civilisationism tapped into.