{
  "id": 15406143,
  "title": "Why Plato-to-Nato Western myth is being resurrected",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/18/why-plato-to-nato-western-myth-is-being-resurrected",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-18T12:30:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "South China Morning Post",
    "slug": "south-china-morning-post",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3371113/why-plato-nato-western-myth-being-resurrected"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The United States is resurrecting an old Western civilizational narrative, one that stretches from the ancient Greeks under Plato to the modern North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This idea, now being rebranded as \"plato-to-NATO,\" is being promoted by the US government, particularly by figures such as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The doctrine emphasizes the importance of the West, defined by territory, ancestry, and Christianity, over broader principles like constitutional democracy, liberty, and equality. Under President Donald Trump, the US has embraced a more aggressive stance on national power, positioning itself as the superior leader of this unbroken lineage of Western civilization. Critics argue that this civilizationalism, or \"civilisationism,\" is a myth, with scholars like Amitav Acharya and Kwame Anthony Appiah pointing out that the notion of a continuous Western civilizational thread is historically inaccurate. The narrative has been popularized through educational systems and ideologies from the Cold War era, but it overlooks significant periods of European history, such as monarchies, religious intolerance, and imperialism. Moreover, it fails to acknowledge the influence of non-Western civilizations and the complex synthesis of Roman law, Christian theology, and Germanic institutions that shaped modern Western institutions. The myth also ignores the fact that much of what is considered Western knowledge was preserved and built upon by Islamic scholars. US officials have been criticized for their lack of awareness of these historical nuances. This revisionist history is being used to bolster American imperialism, with maps suggesting US dominance over territories like Canada, Greenland, and Cuba.",
  "summary": "Standing before the Acropolis in Athens earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the West’s story “the greatest story ever known to man”. But didn’t Hollywood tell us the greatest story ever told was that of Jesus of Nazareth? The decisions of the coming decade, Rubio said, “will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a…",
  "key_points": [
    "US resurrects Plato-to-NATO narrative linking ancient Greeks to modern NATO.",
    "Doctrine emphasizes Western territories, ancestry, and Christianity over democracy.",
    "Critics call civilizationalism a myth, noting inaccuracies in Western continuity."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}