The Week: Mr. Rubio Goes to Munich

• Like FDR, AOC has now bombed in Germany.

• In a speech at this year’s Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an overdue attempt to calm the waters after months of acrimony between the U.S. and its European allies. He may have succeeded. Rubio had to toe the Trump administration’s line on Europe while offering the Europeans something of an olive branch. He managed this by balancing the substance, much of which could have been drawn up in the Oval Office, with a tone markedly more emollient than anything that Europeans have heard from the White House for quite some time. If it has the desired effect, the speech will pave the way for a more constructive discussion of how Europe can assume greater responsibility for its own defense. Such an outcome would allow the U.S. to dedicate more resources to dealing with growing threats elsewhere, particularly China. This would be a pragmatic division of resources—not the American abandonment of Europe that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are likely hoping for.

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• Like FDR, AOC has now bombed in Germany.

• In a speech at this year’s Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an overdue attempt to calm the waters after months of acrimony between the U.S. and its European allies. He may have succeeded. Rubio had to toe the Trump administration’s line on Europe while offering the Europeans something of an olive branch. He managed this by balancing the substance, much of which could have been drawn up in the Oval Office, with a tone markedly more emollient than anything that Europeans have heard from the White House for quite some time. If it has the desired effect, the speech will pave the way for a more constructive discussion of how Europe can assume greater responsibility for its own defense. Such an outcome would allow the U.S. to dedicate more resources to dealing with growing threats elsewhere, particularly China. This would be a pragmatic division of resources—not the American abandonment of Europe that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are likely hoping for.