DID Press: Abdul Karim Khorram, former chief of staff to Afghanistan’s former president Hamid Karzai, has described U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent speech in Athens as an effort to rally Western countries around a shared civilizational identity against the East, warning that such rhetoric could fuel broader confrontation.
Referring to Rubio’s address near the Parthenon, Khorram said the U.S. secretary of state had emphasized Western history and cultural heritage to strengthen political cohesion among Western nations and define a common front against the East.
In his October 7 speech in Athens, Rubio urged Europe to “awaken from its long slumber” and rekindle the fire of Western civilization. He highlighted ancient Greece’s influence on Western political and philosophical traditions and recalled the Persian invasion of Athens in 480 BC as part of his account of the West’s historical roots.
Khorram argued that Rubio’s remarks should not be viewed solely as a reflection on Western history and cultural heritage. In his view, invoking civilizational identity and historical rivalries can become part of a broader effort to establish new geopolitical divisions.
He also compared this approach with developments in Afghanistan during the final years of the Soviet Union. As Marxist ideology weakened during that period, some political movements in Afghanistan turned increasingly towards ethnic nationalism and identity-based competition. Khorram said these trends, amid a broader political crisis, contributed to deeper divisions and internal conflict.
In Khorram’s assessment, political systems facing ideological or institutional crises may turn to civilizational and identity-based narratives to maintain unity and mobilize support. However, he warned that such rhetoric does not necessarily resolve underlying crises and may instead deepen existing divisions.
His criticism comes as Rubio’s Athens speech, which called for the revival of Western civilization and urged Europe to reassert its identity, has drawn attention beyond its historical references. Khorram views this rhetoric as an attempt to draw sharper identity-based boundaries between the West and the East, warning that if translated into policy, it could merge geopolitical competition with cultural divisions and create conditions for new confrontations.