Rubio Assails ICC in Federalist Society Speech, Signaling Hard-Line Foreign Policy Vision

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood before the Federalist Society in Washington on Friday, November 13, and used the occasion to go after the International Criminal Court. He argued for a muscular American foreign policy and against international law that would restrain what the United States does abroad.

It was his first prepared speech since Republicans were routed in the midterm elections on November 3. That timing has fed speculation about whether Rubio, who serves as both national security adviser and the country's top diplomat, might leave those jobs to run for president in 2028. He has firmly denied reports that a campaign is imminent. But the Federalist Society is an occasional stop for Republican hopefuls, and he has at times tried to supply an intellectual justification for President Donald Trump's "America First" foreign policy.

On the court, his language was blunt. The United States, he said, would not "submit to the sterile vision of radical judges or soulless global bureaucrats." Americans, he said, never agreed to the ICC's authority, yet the court and its allies in the global bureaucracy had "appointed themselves judge and jury and executioner of the international order." He repeated his claim that the court would try to prosecute US officials or service members, the claim he used to justify sanctions on the ICC announced last month.

He went further on what Washington might do if the court tried to enforce its rulings against Americans. Rubio suggested the response would involve force, and he quoted the Roman general Pompey to make the point: "Stop quoting laws to men with swords."

Rubio also turned to Iran. The goal of the US-Israeli war against Tehran, he said, was to ensure it never develops a nuclear weapon, a matter he called especially urgent because the Islamic Republic's "radical Shia clerics" had an "expansionist mentality." He set that against North Korea's Kim Jong Un, whom Trump has met three times. "I'm not excusing the terrible things that have happened there," Rubio said, but Kim "is not expansionist. He's not trying to invade Japan or, you know, China or whatever."

The speech lands amid criticism that the Trump administration has broken international law, including by seizing Venezuela's then-president Nicolas Maduro and striking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that it says carried drugs. Rubio has dismissed those criticisms.

The administration's hostility to the Netherlands-based court is not new. Founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the ICC has already seen sanctions imposed on its prosecutors and judges. Washington has condemned arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and an investigation into the conduct of US soldiers in Afghanistan, which the court says is "deprioritized." The court has strong backing from most of its member states, among them every EU country and every NATO member except the United States and Turkey.

The newest sanctions are designed to stifle the court's ability to operate. They take effect in April unless the court's supporters can reach an agreement with the US to avert them. Whether they do, and whether Rubio's presidential speculation grows after this speech, are the things to watch next.