Mark Carney's Jaw-Dropping Davos Speech
Canada is walking away from Washington. Who’s next?
The prime minister of America’s largest trading partner, closest historic ally, and cultural cousin just declared the end of the American-led, rules-based world order as we knew it. In a blunt speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, Mark Carney abandoned any pretense that we are merely in a “transitional” phase of geopolitics. Rather, he argued, the old era is over and a new one has begun. Though he did not cite the United States by name, he forcefully called on other middle powers, like Canada, to band together to collectively protect themselves from the menace the United States has suddenly become.
“Stop invoking the ‘rules-based international order’ as though it still functions as advertised,” Carney told the Davos crowd. “Call the system what it is: a period of intensifying great-power rivalry, where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion.”
It is a remarkable thing when the prime minister of Canada is the one to declare that the America-centric world order is dead. No country integrated its economy more deeply with the United States than Canada—a decision that led to an unprecedented era of prosperity for Canadians and Americans alike. But such is the consequence of an American foreign policy that has abandoned its allies and is now predicated on coercion and bullying in the naked pursuit of territorial expansion.
Carney may not have wanted this divorce, but Trump forced it. The question now is whether anyone else is prepared to follow Canada—and what happens if they do.
