Rubio: "Power requires not only having the means to defend oneself but also the credibility of being willing to use it."

 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Wednesday that the future of the West will depend on its ability to act decisively, rebuild its economic and military strength, and compete for technological and strategic supremacy.

"We stand at a crossroads today. For the coming decade—and the decisions we make—will write the history of the next era. The path we choose will determine whether the West maintains its position at the forefront of the world or resigns itself to a future of societal atrophy, servitude, and decline. We must choose to act now, or we will lose the capacity to act altogether," Rubio declared in a speech during his visit to Greece.

According to the senior official, under the administration of President Donald Trump, the United States "has made its choice." "We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power, to regain control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialize our economy, and to rebuild our defense. To strive for dominance in the technologies and industries of the future," he detailed.

"We choose to reach new frontiers in advanced manufacturing and superintelligence; in drones, weaponry, and warfare; in chips, minerals, and cyberspace; and in all other realms of human possibility—to unleash our energy, rebuild our factories, return our astronauts to the Moon, and launch a new era of space exploration," he continued.

In this context, he asserted that the ancient Greeks "were not naive." "They understood that nations have interests. They understood that statecraft requires prudence and diplomacy, but also the capacity to back them up when prudence and diplomacy fail. They understood that power requires not only having the means to defend oneself but also the credibility of being willing to use them," he said.

"That is the classical understanding of politics and statecraft that the Trump administration hopes to reclaim. To reclaim it not only for our country but for our civilization as a whole," he stated.

"We are at an inflection point. An inflection point not only in the history of my nation but in the history of our entire civilization," he reiterated.

He also noted that "the threats are just as real as they were in the dramatic setting of antiquity."

"National interests did not disappear in the face of international institutions. War did not vanish simply because we preferred peace. Other states continued to arm themselves, seeking influence and competing for territory, technology, resources, markets, energy, and power. And now, there is war again. There is renewed great-power competition. There is once again vulnerability, aggression, and terrorism—a whole universe of new threats and attacks," he argued.

"We must rebuild our institutions and our alliances to confront these threats together," Rubio summarized.