Obama in Cradle of Democracy Says Isolation Is Road to Nowhere
- President evokes ancient Greece in Athens speech on democracy
- Says he’s confident NATO commitment to Europe will endure
Obama: Fear and Frustration Powered Trump's Win
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President Barack Obama summoned the imagery of ancient Greece to call for the world’s democracies to pull together and confront the “enormous disruptions” of globalization in the face of a backlash that has ushered in Brexit and the U.S. election of Donald J. Trump.
In what is likely to stand as his final major address overseas, Obama in Athens invoked the roots of western civilization forged 25 centuries ago by philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle, giving rise to concepts of individual freedom, equality and rule of the people. Yet in today’s world, looking to the recent past for answers to economic challenges probably won’t work, he said.