In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid out a stark doctrine for a world of fractured international norms, warning that “compliance will not buy safety”. The former central banker, once a fixture at summits espousing international cooperation, offered a blunt assessment: “the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”
Carney, who wrote the speech himself, told attendees that “the old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.” While he did not mention Donald Trump by name, the remarks alluded to growing concern that the White House is eager to dismantle the “architecture of collective problem solving” that has defined much of the past eight decades.
The prime minister warned that “great powers” – a thinly veiled reference to the US – have started using economic integration as “weapons”, with “tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited”. He also cautioned against diplomatic and economic retreats, saying a world of “fortresses” will be poorer and less sustainable.
Carney’s rapid rise from economist to world leader is centred on a thesis that geographic proximity, tight economic integration and longstanding political alliances with the US no longer guarantee prosperity and security. He touted his government’s recent trade mission to China, where he courted Chinese investment in Canada’s oil sector and scaled back tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, signalling a break with US policy.
“Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” Carney said. “Great powers can afford to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not.” The speech received a standing ovation, and analysts say Carney is the first major Western leader to acknowledge the reality of American unreliability.
