ATHENS — Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a sweeping address this week from the Pnyx, the ancient hill below the Acropolis where Athenians once gathered to practice the world's first democracy, calling for what a State Department official previewed as a "great renaissance of the Western spirit."

The speech capped Rubio's visit to Athens for the sixth round of the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, an annual forum covering defense cooperation, regional security and energy ties between the two countries, according to Greek City Times.

Tracing a line from Athens to Washington

Dylan Johnson, the State Department's assistant secretary for Global Public Affairs, previewed the address as tracing the West's inheritance "from Athens and Rome through Christianity to the founding of the American Republic," with Rubio expected to warn that the civilization built on that lineage has forgotten its own foundations.

AN UNAPOLOGETIC PURSUIT OF NATIONAL POWER

In the speech itself, Rubio called for exactly that, framing it as a response to what he described as a new era of great-power competition, per reporting from CBS News. The remarks come as the administration leans harder into explicitly civilizational language in its foreign policy messaging, a shift that has drawn both praise from allies and unease from critics who see echoes of nationalist rhetoric.

The visit wasn't without friction. Greek lawmakers clashed in parliament this week over a remark attributed to U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Rubio's trip drew protests and a heavy security presence across central Athens.

What's next

The Strategic Dialogue is expected to produce fresh commitments on defense cooperation between Washington and Athens, including continued U.S. use of Greek bases and ports that have become increasingly important to American operations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greek officials say further details will be released in the coming days.