Opinion At Davos, speeches by Trump and Carney frame a demise. But there’s another perspective that got lost

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, leaders of two countries that have benefited from the so-called “rules-based order” gave the world starkly different frames of its demise. Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, made an unflinching assessment of the current moment, which he described as one not of transition but of rupture. While recognising the hard realities presented by America’s unilateralism, Carney suggested a possible roadmap for middle powers. US President Donald Trump, speaking just hours after Carney, confirmed the crisis. He glorified colonialism and spoke of American interests and hegemony, especially in the Western Hemisphere, as paramount. He denigrated non-Western nationalities and people, even as he congratulated himself on ending hostilities. The Davos chattering class instantly framed the two speeches as this versus that. A few things got lost.

Carney’s “values-based realism” draws from a particular context. As the Canadian PM acknowledged, “For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, praised its principles, and benefited from its predictability. We could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.” Long before the American-led order, “developed” countries benefited from centuries of imperialism at the expense of those that are still “developing”. This context forms the backdrop of Carney’s call for middle powers to, in essence, forge minilaterals to increase their negotiating power. Trump, for his part, was clear about turning back the clock. But parse through his rambunctious rhetoric, and there was some pragmatism, too. He made it clear that the US would not use force to take over Greenland (before claiming a deal was on the table hours later). He also sought to draw a line between the West and the rest, the people dying in Ukraine “who look like us” and the “criminal” migrants and those who made Europe “unrecognisable”. (read brown, black, non-Christian).

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It is to Carney’s credit that he called the bully by his name. He is also right to leverage his country’s considerable resources — the Arctic economy, critical minerals, energy reserves, “the most educated population in the world”. But the burden on India, and other countries that have been at the receiving end of a “rules-based order” they had little role in shaping, is more complex. Pulling people out of poverty and ensuring they have opportunity is, for many in the Global South, the place where values and realism coincide and collide. Canada, and like-minded countries, must keep that perspective in mind as they build new solidarities. And perhaps, in Washington, the realisation may dawn that power that is sustainable is rarely belligerent.