A new world order: Carney addresses the Trump in the room

Sixteen minutes of eloquence! That was Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The speech struck many as a moment of rare candour on the global stage — that confronted what he described as a fundamental shift in geopolitics. In his speech, Carney argued that the post–World War II rules-based international order has effectively given way to a new era of great power rivalry and unrestrained geopolitics, a reality he said nations must acknowledge rather than wistfully mourn. He framed this shift as the end of a “pleasant fiction” of cooperation and predictability and urged middle powers like Canada to build strategic autonomy and new coalitions grounded in shared values such as human rights, sovereignty, and sustainable development.

Carney’s remarks implicitly addressed the “Trump in the room” without naming the U.S. president directly, responding to tensions stirred by controversial U.S. actions and rhetoric on issues like Greenland and tariffs that have strained traditional alliances. While he did not single out any leader by name, his forceful denunciations of coercive power politics and calls for collective action were widely interpreted as a rebuttal to that style of unilateralism, garnering standing ovations from the Davos audience. By positioning Canada and other mid-sized nations as builders of a new world order adapted to today’s fractured geopolitical landscape, Carney’s speech reframed the narrative from one of decline to one of proactive cooperation among like-minded states.