At a moment of mounting threats from China and Russia, this year’s Munich Security Conference delivered an unusually clear takeaway: Republicans arrived with a strategy for rearmament and renewal, while leading Democrats offered vibes, partisan sniping, and evasions.
For more than half a century, the Munich Security Conference has been a forum for foreign dignitaries and opinion makers to lay out their thoughts on issues of the day. While a fixture, the conference is seldom memorable. This year was an exception.
PETER LAFFIN: THE RUBIO-AOC SPLIT-SCREEN AT MUNICH IS THE STUFF OF GOP DREAMS
Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a historic speech, offering a way forward for the United States and Europe. Rubio hailed the close relationship between the U.S. and Europe that led to victory in the Cold War against the Soviet Union and its forces. He celebrated shared triumph and, most importantly, he lamented shared mistakes.
After the wall fell and the Soviet empire collapsed, the U.S. and Europe lost their way, suffering from the “delusion” that “every nation would be a liberal democracy” and that trade and commerce would lead to an unprecedented period of peace.
It was, Rubio declared, a “foolish idea” that ignored history. The U.S. and Europe had — jointly, it must be said — chosen to believe that national sovereignty was archaic and that international institutions and laws were the wave of the future. Together, they opened their borders to mass migration, embraced unrealistic “solutions” to alternative energy, and settled for paltry defense spending.
This was the world as some want it to be, and not the world as it is. Disaster has ensued.
Unchecked migration has led to a crisis of national cohesion for both America and its European friends. Reduced defense budgets and “green energy” have resulted in the U.S. and Europe being ill-prepared for rising challenges.
The consequences of decades of both misplaced hope and mistaken thinking now loom before us.
China is engaged in the largest military buildup in modern history, threatening Taiwan and many of its neighbors in the Indo-Pacific. While its opponents and critics have been rapidly deindustrializing, Beijing has taken the opposite track, ensuring that the world is reliant on the malevolent industrial power of the Chinese Communist Party. Meanwhile, its ally in Moscow seeks to remake the map of Europe, reconstituting empires of old.
What is needed is a course correction. As the Secretary put it: “We made these mistakes together, and now, together, we owe it to our people to face these facts and to move forward, to rebuild.”
Rubio called for restoring supply chain sovereignty, for reindustrializing society, and for “rebuilding our capacity to defend our people.” It was a fundamentally serious speech, one that reckoned with mistakes made but also offered a compelling, unapologetic vision for a way out of the morass.
And it stood in stark contrast to what was offered by Democratic policymakers.
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) went to Munich to burnish her foreign policy credentials ahead of a possible 2028 run for president. When asked whether she would commit troops to defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Ocasio-Cortez offered a meandering nonanswer filled with “ums” and an undeniable lack of seriousness.
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan could result in a Sino-American war, a cataclysm between two nuclear powers with death tolls unseen since World War II, if not ever. And the congresswoman from Queens seems to have given it precious little thought — if any. Some of her colleagues fared little better.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) offered highly partisan remarks, attacking America’s duly elected president as “temporary.” The governor, along with some Democratic compatriots in the Senate, had harsher words for President Donald Trump than for China. To the extent that he offered a vision, Newsom embraced the very same failed policies that Rubio rightly scorned. They lead nowhere except off a cliff.
EDITORIAL: THE GOVERNMENT UNION THREAT TO GOOD GOVERNMENT IN VIRGINIA
For the first time in its history, the U.S. confronts two nuclear-equipped great powers, each with revisionist ambitions. The scope and scale of the threat are impossible to overstate. China alone is a military and industrial titan, dwarfing previous opponents such as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. And the West, deindustrialized and demoralized, is ill-prepared.
These are unprecedented and unusual times. They require statesmanship, not pandering and partisan distractions. Munich suggests that one side has a vision and the other has, at best, empty platitudes. Only one is equipped to lead Americans out of the morass.