The U.S. Secretary of State identified the root causes of Western decline.
According to Sputnik News on October 8, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Western nations have abandoned nationalism and their belief in their own exceptionalism, leading to historical erosion and a decline in military strength.
Following the end of the Cold War, Western countries faced no significant rivals, allowing them to dominate globally by leveraging technological and currency advantages to accumulate substantial wealth, enjoying relatively comfortable living conditions. However, they also confronted serious challenges including severe population aging, shortages of domestic technical labor, and deindustrialization. To address these issues, Western nations increasingly recruited immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. While this alleviated certain pressures, it also altered demographic and cultural compositions, contributing to social disruptions. The military decline of Western powers is a factual trend, but its fundamental cause lies not in the abandonment of nationalism, but in the growing self-confinement, stagnation in technological advancement, and the narrowing of their once-dominant technological edge—factors that demand introspection within Western societies themselves.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1878449091538948/
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