Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Wednesday for Western nations to rejuvenate their civilization so they can maintain their dominance in a world of wars, economic uncertainty and technological change.
“Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads,” Mr. Rubio said in a speech in Athens, with the Acropolis and Parthenon bathed in the golden light of a Mediterranean sunset behind him.
“The next decade will write the story of the next century,” he said. “The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world, or resigns itself to a future of atrophy, servitude and decline. We’ll either choose to act now, or lose the choice to act at all.”
Mr. Rubio’s speech sought to highlight the ideological tenets of an American conservative movement whose adherents see President Trump as their leader.
Some of its intellectual architects argue that citizens of the United States and Europe should not apologize for the choices made by their ancestors, including exploration and conquest of other peoples and lands. Instead, they say, citizens should embrace that earlier ethos, as their countries seek an edge in the military and economic competition with China and other non-Western powers.
Men of ancient Greece, Mr. Rubio said, “knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation, nor in fighting to defend its interests above all else.”
“They believed — fiercely — in the ideal of the ‘great man’: the exceptional individual who obtains immortality through his own deeds,” he added.
Mr. Rubio’s visit to Greece was the centerpiece of a three-nation European tour, and it was the second time he has used the continent as a backdrop for an ideological speech.
His remarks in Athens echoed lines he delivered to European leaders in a February speech at the Munich Security Conference, where he spoke of the possible “civilizational erasure” of Europe. However, in the new speech, Mr. Rubio did not use that contentious phrase — one embraced by far-right American and European nationalists pushing for strict limits on immigration.
As he did in Munich, Mr. Rubio praised the builders of empires — Alexander the Great, who conquered the “entire known world” (an exaggeration of the size of the territory he controlled), as well as Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and Hernán Cortés — the Spanish conquistador whose troops violently toppled the Aztec rulers of Mexico.
Mr. Rubio also talked about crimes committed against ancient Greece by a Persian army that ransacked Athens 2,500 years ago. He invoked “the legendary last stand of 300 Spartans” at Thermopylae against the Persians.
With those references, Mr. Rubio was adopting the rhetoric of some conservative commentators, who, during the American wars in the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, emphasized the heroism of the 300 Spartans faced with what they called rapacious warriors from another civilization.
Later in the speech, Mr. Rubio denounced the “radical mullahs of Iran” — the country located on the land of ancient Persia.
He went on to link the philosophical and political pursuits of ancient Greece to “the architects of European Christendom,” who designed soaring cathedrals, and to colonial settlers, who embodied “the American frontier spirit.”
“We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was here millennia ago,” he said.
Nations, he said, must have “the ability to wield force when prudence and diplomacy fail.”
Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, criticized Western governments that had “opened our borders” in recent decades, a theme he also addressed at a news conference on Wednesday morning.
There, he called for greater cooperation between the United States and Greece to restrict migration and immigration.
“Greece is also a very close strategic partner on border security and the fight against mass migration,” Mr. Rubio said while standing beside Giorgios Gerapetritis, the Greek foreign minister.
“What we do not wish to see under any circumstances is that the birthplace of the West is threatened by bad decisions, by actions, by failure to address challenges,” Mr. Rubio added.
Mr. Gerapetritis told reporters that Greece was trying to address “challenges” from “mass migration.”
Mr. Rubio also praised Greece for being on track to spend at least 5 percent of its annual gross domestic product on defense, a benchmark that Mr. Trump insists NATO allies must meet.
Mr. Rubio is scheduled to fly to Portugal on Thursday, his third stop on a tour that started in Iceland.
After the news conference, he visited the U.S. Embassy, where he was introduced to a crowd by Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former romantic partner of Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the American president.
An investigative article in The Wall Street Journal has raised questions about potential conflicts of interest in Ms. Guilfoyle’s involvement in energy deals in Greece. Democratic Congressional leaders are calling for an inquiry.
When asked at the news conference about the allegations, Mr. Rubio said he would not discuss them in public.
“Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here,” he said, as Ms. Guilfoyle sat in front of him.
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