# Classical Statecraft Joins Diplomacy to Credible Power by Marco Rubio > “For all their lofty ideals, the ancient Greeks were not naive. They understood that nations have interests. They understood that statecraft requires prudence and diplomacy, but they also understood that it requires the ability to wield force when prudence and diplomacy fail. They understood that power requires not only having the means to defend yourself, but also the credibility that you are willing to use it. This is the classical understanding of politics and statecraft that the Trump Administration hopes to reclaim—not just for our country, but for the whole of our civilization.” > **— Marco Rubio**, *Remarks at the Pnyx, Athens, October 7, 2026, 15:03–15:42* ## Sources and Context - **Primary recording:** [U.S. Department of State recording, 15:03–15:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOv1DpML7I4&t=903s), October 7, 2026. - **Official transcript:** [U.S. Department of State — Secretary of State Marco Rubio Remarks](https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesman/2026/10/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks), October 7, 2026. The State Department page returned a technical-difficulties notice during the source-research pass; the audiovisual recording remains the controlling primary source. - **Prepared source record:** [[research/Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks from the Acropolis in Athens|Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks from the Acropolis in Athens]] preserves the complete spoken transcript, the attendance record, the source architecture, and this statement's position in the full address. - **Editorial record:** The readable quotation is a journalistic-clean rendering of the spoken delivery: punctuation, obvious caption defects, false starts, and non-substantive repetitions are normalized without changing the proposition. The complete uncompressed delivery remains available in the prepared source record for direct comparison. - **Context:** Rubio treats realism as part of the classical inheritance rather than as a departure from ideals. Prudence, diplomacy, capacity, and credibility become mutually necessary disciplines of national survival. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/War With Empire|War With Empire]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/war with empire/Authorship of the West|Authorship of the West]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Neo-Westernism|Neo-Westernism]] - [[wiki/Marco Rubio|Marco Rubio]] - [[wiki/Classical Statecraft|Classical Statecraft]] - [[wiki/National Power|National Power]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “For all their lofty ideals, the ancient Greeks were not naive. They understood that nations have interests. They understood that statecraft requires prudence and diplomacy, but they also understood that it requires the ability to wield force when prudence and diplomacy fail. They understood that power requires not only having the means to defend yourself, but also the credibility that you are willing to use it. This is the classical understanding of politics and statecraft that the Trump Administration hopes to reclaim—not just for our country, but for the whole of our civilization.” — Marco Rubio, Remarks at the Pnyx, Athens, October 7, 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-marco-rubio-classical-statecraft-credible-power ```