From Davos: Canada PM Sees ‘Rupture’ in Global Order, Calls for Middle Powers to Act Together

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday delivered a blunt warning about the changing global landscape, declaring that the post-war international order has effectively collapsed and will not return. Addressing the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Carney urged middle powers to close ranks and act collectively in an era increasingly shaped by hard power politics and intensifying rivalry among major states.

In a wide-ranging speech, Carney argued that the assumptions underpinning decades of global cooperation no longer hold. Economic integration, once promoted as a stabilising force, is now being repurposed as a tool of coercion, he said, with tariffs, supply chains and financial systems increasingly weaponised by powerful nations.

“The world is experiencing a rupture,” Carney said in his opening remarks. “What we are witnessing is the end of a comfortable illusion and the start of a harsher reality—one where geopolitics operates with fewer limits and fewer restraints.”

Rejecting calls to revive the old rules-based system, the Canadian leader cautioned against romanticising the past. “The old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it,” he said, adding that nostalgia offered no solutions to present challenges. Instead, he called on countries caught between rival power blocs to shape a new framework grounded in cooperation and resilience.

Carney positioned middle powers as the most exposed in a fragmented world, but also as those with the greatest incentive to defend multilateralism. “If we are not at the table, we are on the menu,” he warned, noting that unlike major powers, middle-sized economies lack the scale, military reach and leverage to act unilaterally.

Without naming the United States or its leadership, Carney alluded to the era of American dominance, acknowledging both its contradictions and contributions. He noted that while the global order was often unevenly applied—particularly in trade enforcement and international law—it nonetheless provided critical public goods, including secure sea lanes, financial stability and dispute-resolution mechanisms.

“Great powers exempted themselves when it suited them,” he said, adding that legal and economic norms were frequently enforced selectively. Yet, he conceded that American hegemony had played a stabilising role for decades by underwriting global security and open markets.

Looking ahead, Carney said Canada was recalibrating its foreign and economic policy to reflect the new reality—seeking greater strategic autonomy while continuing to uphold democratic values, sovereignty and human rights.

His remarks come amid growing global uncertainty, trade tensions and weakened multilateral institutions, underscoring a broader debate at Davos over how nations can navigate a world no longer anchored by a single dominant power.

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