After Munich, the GOP Has a Foreign Policy
Rubio's synthesis previews post-Trump foreign policy
Secretary Rubio’s address at the Munich Security Conference was the most important Republican foreign policy speech since Trump first upended the party consensus.
Early coverage is proceeding along expected lines. Rubio “offered a more supportive message than Vance.” He drew “one red line” on European decline. He “reassured” world leaders. Meanwhile, the contrast between Rubio and Vance is already being painted by social media pundits building up their guy for 2028.
The real story is more important and more durable than any of these details.
Since Trump emerged as the driver of conservative priorities, the right has been caught between two positions. One camp wants to preserve the post-1945 alliance-heavy consensus and the assertive American role abroad. The other views that system as a relic and wants to turn America’s focus inward. Neither side has found a resolution.
Rubio offered one on Saturday. And it is likely to become the anchor of the party’s foreign policy rhetoric going forward.
The substance of his speech was populist-right. Rubio called the post-Cold War consensus a “dangerous delusion.” He attacked the “climate cult.” He called mass migration a civilizational threat. He framed national security as an existential issue, not merely a budget outlay.
“Armies do not fight for abstractions,” Rubio said. “Armies fight for a people, a nation, a way of life.”
No secretary of state has spoken in these terms in modern memory. This was the populist right’s civilizational language delivered from Europe’s premier security forum.
But, unexpectedly, Rubio did not follow the diagnosis to its usual conclusion. He did not tell the Europeans they are on their own and that America will retreat into isolation across the Atlantic.
Instead, he called America “a child of Europe” and he said a transatlantic divorce “is neither our goal nor our wish.”
Vice President Vance’s 2025 Munich speech offered no such reassurance. Vance lectured the room on censorship and European moral failure and the audience heard hostility. Rubio delivered a similar civilizational critique but without the harsh isolationist framing. In line with the administration, but with the right touch of diplomacy.
Importantly, Vance's confrontation last year was necessary to make Rubio's partnership offer credible. You cannot extend a hand until the other side believes you are willing to walk away. Rubio delivered the finished product.
He told Europe to spend more, defend its own civilization, and stop managing its decline. But, critically, he promised to stay.
The most telling detail is how the Europeans responded. To a degree not yet seen with a Trump administration, they bought in. Rubio was met with a standing ovation. Von der Leyen called the speech “reassuring.” Merz and Macron both declared the old world order finished—in implicit concession to Rubio’s framing.
British Prime Minister Starmer agreed the West should not sit in “the warm bath of complacency.”
They heard a secretary of state open to working together, not abandoning our partnership. And, more so than ever, they accepted the terms.
This is the way forward that can hold the Republican coalition together and secure wins abroad. That is why Munich matters beyond the headline and beyond the moment. Rubio delivered a diplomatic address that threaded the needle between two of the most combative factions on the Right. Indeed, he has shown us what the future of Republican foreign policy looks like.
Civilizational confidence abroad, reasonable commitment to our allies in Europe, and an end to the post-Cold War assumptions that the entire West clung to for too long.
The Republican foreign policy debate is not over, but now we know what direction it moves in. And the Europeans, for the first time in years, seem ready to agree.