In his seminal speech at the World Economic Forum, Carney laid down clearly that the international rules-based world is now a “fiction”, where the chimera of multilateral United Nations-umbrella institutions are no longer “architectures of collective problem-solving” but irrelevant and defunded bodies. The reality for middle powers, Carney argued, is that they “must act together because if we are not at the table, we’re on the menu”.
On Jan 20, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time. As the president of the world’s largest economy, Trump would, over the following year, to the aghast of allies, assert America’s new role as the world’s latest hegemon.
One year on, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, one of the erstwhile US allies, was compelled to speak up as a “middle power” against this rapidly changing world.
