New Delhi, Feb. 28 -- When the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio rose to speak at the Munich Security Conference on Valentine's Day, his language resonated with faith and kinship. "Thousands of years of Western civilization hung in the balance," he warned, describing the United States and Europe as bound not merely by interests but by Christian faith, ancestry and shared heritage. America, he said, would "always be a child of Europe."

Beneath the civility of the speech lay a civilisational thesis characterised by many assumptions that have long been rubbished. By framing the West as a cultural bloodline under siege -- threatened by migration, demographic change and rival power -- Rubio revived a narrative that has long accompanied the ...