Although the speech that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered to this year’s Munich Security Conference was softer in tone than the one that Vice President JD Vance gave last year, the Europe he celebrated was that of the ethno-nationalist far right. Europe is on its own, and it must start acting like it.

MUNICH – At last year’s Munich Security Conference, JD Vance gave a performance worthy of his boss in both its theatricality and its virality. Not only did he break the norm of transatlantic comity and forego the usual bromides that previous US vice presidents brought to the MSC; he also snubbed his German guests by meeting with Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) instead of then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz.