The pivotal question of what will follow the crack-up of the liberal international order dominated the highest levels of European politics at the recent 2026 Munich Security Conference.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave his own forceful answer, following Vice President JD Vance’s provocative speech last year. Rubio delivered an equally spirited address that issued an ultimatum: Rationalizing collapse and weakness is no longer the policy of the United States — and it should no longer be Europe’s policy either. America has no “interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline,” he said.

Alliances should be made, renewed, or even disbanded depending on whether they help secure America’s interests in the present.

Instead, Rubio urged a reformation of the “global institutions of the old order” to defend and strengthen the key pillars of Western civilization.

The problem in Rubio’s mind was that the 20th-century web of international alliances, designed to counter the Soviets in the wake of two devastating world wars, took on a life of its own. Its keepers began putting the preservation of their supranational relations “above the vital interests of our people and our nations.”

Institutions such as the United Nations have utterly failed to protect national interests, and they simply have no answers to the most pressing problems in international affairs today. Instead, they actively encourage deindustrialization, mass migration, and shortsighted climate policies, causing a loss of confidence in the very sources that have supplied the West’s vitality for centuries.

To counter this, Rubio proposed that the U.S. partner with Europe to lead a “reinvigorated alliance … that boldly races into the future.” It will focus on “advancing our mutual interests and new frontiers, unshackling our ingenuity, our creativity, and the dynamic spirit to build a new Western century.” If the West wants to safeguard and promote its historic ways of life, then an international realignment is inescapably necessary.

The themes Rubio articulated were also the subject of this year’s “Budapest Global Dialogue,” an annual conference put on by the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation. This year’s gathering focused on what HIIA President Gladden Pappin presented as the choices currently before the world: endless conflict that’s likely to spin out of control or the emergence of a foundation for long-term security, peace, and prosperity.

Keynote speakers and panelists agreed that continuing to prop up a decaying international order was not a viable option. Though necessary for its time, it is clearly inadequate in a world that looks far different from the one that featured creeping death in the form of the USSR. As Rubio recently told a gaggle of reporters before his address in Munich, “The old world is gone.” He noted that nations must re-examine their roles in our “new era in geopolitics.”

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Photo by Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP via Getty Images

The urgency of this project has been amplified by the European Union’s various machinations against popular government. Its censorship machine is attempting to export the EU’s liberty-denying laws to America and other Western nations. Unsurprisingly, the problem of censorship, which has been a chief focus of Vice President Vance, took up much of the conversation of the opening-night panel.

Headlined by Sarah B. Rogers, the U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, and Balázs Orbán, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political director, panelists discussed the countless issues stemming from the EU’s Digital Services Act. It uses “trusted flaggers” like HateAid — an organization funded by the German government — to censor online speech, including that of Americans.

Pappin and other participants also noted the myriad problems stemming from unchecked globalization. Nations happily traded away the most basic elements of sovereignty for a mess of pottage in the form of lower prices on select goods. This was justified using free-market language, in which attaining the highest GDP possible seemingly became the summum bonum of political life. Former Trump administration official Andrew Peek termed this problem “economics without politics.”

In the United States in particular, key supply chains were mostly shipped out of the country, the folly of which was fully exposed during the COVID debacle. The U.S. essentially followed a systematic deindustrialization plan as we helped build up other countries, especially China.

China’s rise didn’t happen solely due to its sheer geographic size or population. It occurred because the Clinton administration and Western leaders decided the best way to fend it off was by inviting the Chinese into the heart of the world’s economic system. This was a catastrophic choice that helped hasten the collapse of the old order.

Now, China is by far the world leader in many positive economic indicators. The country is also looking to become the world’s first electrostate, adding another gigawatt of capacity to its grid every year.

Meanwhile, the United States is facing mounting problems with our electric grid, which will be further exacerbated by the construction of data centers and older plants going offline. No nuclear power plants were built in the U.S. between 1996 and 2016. Additionally, as noted in a Department of Energy report last year, utopian green energy mandates have helped bring the U.S. closer to the brink of a full-blown energy crisis.

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Though the conference featured discussions on other pivotal topics — especially the promise and peril of artificial general intelligence — there wasn’t a dedicated panel on immigration. But that didn’t stop speakers from addressing the topic. Alexandre del Valle, a professor at France’s IPAG, called mass Islamic immigration to Europe a long-term bomb. And in a keynote address that served as a campaign speech of sorts, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó celebrated the fact that illegal migration to Hungary is nonexistent.

Szijjártó also devoted time to underscoring the stakes of the upcoming Hungarian parliamentary elections. The April 12 contest will feature a rather personal battle between current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Péter Magyar, who resigned from Fidesz in 2024 and then joined TISZA, the Respect and Freedom Party. The campaign billboards and posters I saw plastered around Budapest, which were nearly all pro-Orbán, showed Magyar gladly acquiescing to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s insistence to send Hungarian armaments to Ukraine.

Fidesz is asking voters if they want to keep Orbán’s government in power or elect those who would sacrifice the country’s blood and treasure in war. President Trump clearly wants the former. During Rubio’s trip to Budapest after his Munich speech, he said that the American president is “deeply committed” to Orbán’s victory in April.

As the Trump administration sees it, the path forward is clear: maintaining alliances when political goals and traditions are shared, as is the case between Hungary and the United States. And as Rubio was careful to point out in Munich, when alliances become strained, renewal through strategic thinking that connects means and ends is essential. One such example is Elbridge Colby’s recent discussion of the creation of NATO 3.0, in which U.S. allies bear more of the financial burden.

What won’t work, however, is elevating prudential considerations to the level of principle, as world leaders and bureaucrats have done far too often in recent decades. They have frozen in amber the specific circumstances of the second half of the 20th century, thinking that those paradigms must forever dictate how nations should act. But as Dhruva Jaishankar, the executive director of the Observer Research Foundation America, pointed out, the ballroom in which the 2026 Budapest Global Dialogue was held was built in 1896. Five international orders have come and gone in that time.

Contrary to the Anne Applebaums of our foreign policy elite class, who have helped drive the West into a ditch, the Nazis aren’t marching just over the horizon, and Vladimir Putin isn’t the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler. Alliances should be made, renewed, or even disbanded depending on whether they help secure America’s interests in the present. As Daniel J. Mahoney is fond of saying, it isn’t always Munich 1938. Serious leaders acknowledge current realities and marry their rhetoric to actions that will lead to peace, prosperity, and the good of the West — and the good of America above all.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at the American Mind.

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The United States and its allies are facing a defining moment in history — one Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck believes most people don’t yet fully recognize.

However, one man who does recognize this moment is Marco Rubio, who laid out Glenn’s feelings precisely in a recent speech at the Munich Security Conference.

“What Rubio was talking about this weekend was this system has failed, and Donald Trump is going a completely different direction, and we will lead the way … but you have to restore common sense,” Glenn explains.

“You cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again. This system doesn’t work, and we all know it. Just we’re the first ones to admit it,” he adds.

And in order to make a change going forward, Glenn believes we need to look at the real history of Western civilization instead of the “woke” version.

“I like history. I know what history means. And when it comes to Western civilization, how could you make the case that it’s worth letting go? You could only make a case if you’ve been carefully taught that Western civilization means nothing except bad things,” he says. “And you’re misinformed on that.”

This is why Glenn says that “we’re already in World War III.”

“We’re fighting World War III. You just don’t know it yet. Islam is on the move. And what is their target? Western civilization. … And they occupy those countries, which they’ve been trying to do for a thousand-plus years. They occupy those countries. They now have nuclear weapons. And if they occupy those countries, you no longer have what built us,” Glenn explains.

“May I suggest that we understand that times have changed, and we want our country to survive, and we want the Western civilization to survive. … We see the world is changing and has changed, and we adapt so we don’t lose who we are. We do it in a different way. We do it in a better way,” he continues.

And that better way, Glenn says, is to “hold our values and what made us a country in the first place.”

“Let’s remember those things. Let’s restore those things, and then let’s adapt those to today’s issues and problems. I think that’s what Rubio was saying. And he was challenging Europe, and at the same time, he was reminding America: This is what Donald Trump is challenging America to do as well,” he explains.

“We’re going to do it. Join us,” he adds.

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A high school in Virginia suspended over 300 students for walking out of class for an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest, and many on social media have applauded the action.

On February 13, students at Woodbridge High School marched off of campus in solidarity with others across the nation who ostensibly disagree with ICE operations ordered by the Trump administration.

‘Good. They’re there to learn, not protest ICE doing their jobs.’

A letter from principal Heather Abney to parents of students said that the district did not endorse the walkout and that students who left campus without permission would be punished according to their regular code of behavior. A total of 303 students were suspended for three days.

Some of the students reportedly went to a nearby shopping center after leaving campus, others went home, and some returned to the campus later. Administrators said that some of the students who returned to the school caused a disturbance as well.

WDVM-TV reported the 303 students suspended from the school on Thursday comprised about 11% of the student population. Officials warned that more protests would meet with the same punishments.

Many on social media praised the school for imposing consequences on the students’ unruly actions.

“That is the best news I’ve heard all day!!!! Finally a school district that knows and enforces the rules,” read one response.

“Schools need to enforce rules consistently. Leaving class without permission disrupts learning and comes with consequences, even if the cause feels important to the students,” said another user on X.

“Good. They’re there to learn, not protest ICE doing their jobs,” said another detractor.

“Finally the adults are taking charge,” read another response. “Protest on your own time.”

RELATED: Video shows brawl after HS walkout protester allegedly hit pro-ICE man — man was charged with child abuse

Others questioned whether cutting the students from school was an effective punishment for cutting school.

The Prince William County Police Department provided some traffic control for the protest and supervised the students for safety.

The Trump administration has deported about 675,000 illegal aliens in the first year of the president’s second term, and another 2.2 million are estimated to have self-deported.

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Nearly half of Americans now refuse to identify as either Democrat or Republican. According to a recent Gallup poll, independents make up a record 45% of the electorate, yet our political system continues to operate as though this plurality doesn’t exist — until now.

Both major political parties are facing widespread public dissatisfaction, with 58% of Americans viewing the Republican Party unfavorably and 61% expressing unfavorable views of the Democratic Party. As confidence in the parties erodes, 2026 is shaping up to be the year that we see a handful of independents elected to Congress, disrupting the balance of power in Washington.

Independents need only three to five seats to fundamentally transform American politics.

For politically homeless voters, this moment calls for supporting credible independent candidates where they can actually win, especially in congressional districts where neither party is delivering for its constituents.

While the Gallup poll shows the increase in independent self-identification metrics, which have been sitting at around 40% since 2011, there is a convergence of two major trends that make this moment in politics ripe for independents.

The first major trend is the rise of Millennials and Gen Z as a central voting bloc. 2026 will be an election in which younger Americans make up a sizeable portion of the electorate, with projections currently holding that Millennials and Gen Z will account for over half of voters by 2028.

Millennials are now well into their 30s, many serving in executive and senior leadership roles in politics and business, including prominent voices such as Vice President JD Vance and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Together, Millennials and Gen Z are becoming one of the most influential forces in the electorate.

Unlike their predecessors, these two generations are far more likely to identify as independent. Many have never belonged to a political party in the first place. Younger independents are focused on issues like affordability, which both parties are failing to address. They gravitate toward candidates from either party who appear to be invested in their issues.

The second trend is the broader integration of AI systems into everyday life — including politics. AI is the great leveler, much like the printing press fundamentally altered information systems and power structures centuries ago. It will be a game-changer in a similar way, and it’s a major reason why an independent movement in 2026 can make more progress than past efforts.

RELATED: Republicans and Democrats are in revolt — for very different reasons

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The two-party system, like the taxi industry before Uber disrupted it, represents an entrenched but flawed model that has resisted reform. AI provides the tools to completely bypass the old system, rather than slowly reforming it from the inside. Technology now democratizes campaign infrastructure, voter outreach, and message distribution pathways for alternatives that were previously impossible without massive institutional backing.

Americans are hungry for more options at the ballot box. We can customize what we watch, what we drive, even which type of peanut butter sits on our shelves. Yet when it comes to politics, those options narrow dramatically. As the two major parties continue to struggle to meet the moment, voters’ appetite for credible alternatives is only growing stronger.

In the private sector, we would call it a clear product-market fit. If there were two brands that people clearly rejected, competition would naturally emerge in the market. The same logic applies to politics. Recent polling from the Independent Center Voice discovered that 76% of voters would likely vote for “strong, well-funded independent candidate.”

For far too long, the conversation among independents has fixated on electing a third-party candidate to the White House. They’ll find more luck channeling their dissatisfaction, frustration, and growing disillusionment toward Congress, where institutional change is more enduring. It’s in congressional races — not presidential ones — that the independent movement will be felt first.

Independents need only three to five seats to fundamentally transform American politics. With growing concentrations of independent and “no party preference” voters across key districts, the foundation for change is already in place.

The real question is no longer whether the independent movement will arrive, but whether the political system is prepared to respond.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

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