Switzerland: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the US-led system of global governance is enduring “a rupture”, shaped by intensifying great power competition and a “fading” rules-based international order. 

Speaking to political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Carney delivered his address a day before US President Donald Trump was due to speak at the gathering. 

Since entering Canadian politics last year, Carney has consistently argued that the world will not return to a pre-Trump normal. He reiterated that view on Tuesday, offering a broad assessment of the US president’s impact on global affairs without naming him directly.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said.

From rules-based order to power rivalry

Carney said Canada had long benefited from the old “rules-based international order”, including from “American hegemony” that “helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.”

That era, he argued, is giving way to a harsher reality.

“Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion,” Carney said.

Middle powers warned against complacency

In a clear warning against appeasing major powers, Carney said countries like Canada could no longer assume that “compliance will buy safety”.

“It won’t,” he said.

He added that the challenge for middle powers was no longer whether to adapt, but how.

“The question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to this new reality. We must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls — or whether we can do something more ambitious.”

“Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney said.

“Great powers can afford for now to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not.”

Canada, Trump remarks and security concerns

Carney’s speech came after Canada’s Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian military has developed a model response to a potential US invasion.

Citing two unnamed senior government officials, the newspaper said the response model focuses on insurgency-style tactics similar to those used in Afghanistan by fighters resisting Soviet and later US forces.

Following Trump’s 2024 election and in the early months of his new term, the US president repeatedly referred to Canada as the 51st state and said a merger would benefit the country.

While such annexation talk has eased in recent months, Trump overnight posted an image on social media showing Canada and Venezuela covered in the US flag, implying a full American takeover of both countries.

Support for Greenland amid US threats

The Davos meeting has also been overshadowed by Trump’s threats to enforce US control over Greenland, with the president saying his plan for the autonomous Danish territory was irreversible.

“Canada stands firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully supports their unique right to determine Greenland’s future,” Carney said.