Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a stark warning to so-called middle powers during his address at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, declaring that the long-standing US-led rules-based international order is breaking down amid intensifying great power rivalry.
Carney, a former economist and central banker who entered Canadian politics less than a year ago, said the world is experiencing a rupture rather than a transition, arguing that nations can no longer assume a return to pre-Trump global stability.
“The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must,” Carney said, warning that compliance with powerful states would no longer guarantee security in an increasingly fractured global system.
Carney stated that the old international order is not coming back and should not be romanticized. He cautioned against nostalgia, saying that looking backward offers no strategy for navigating today’s geopolitical realities.
While acknowledging that Canada benefited from decades of relative stability under American hegemony, Carney said that era has given way to a new system marked by economic coercion, strategic rivalry, and weakening international norms.
“Call it what it is,” he said. “A system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”
Carney stressed that countries like Canada must adapt to the new reality, not by retreating behind walls, but by acting together. “If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he warned, underscoring the risks faced by nations lacking the economic or military scale of global superpowers.
During his speech, Carney also voiced firm support for Greenland and Denmark amid renewed US pressure over the strategically important Arctic territory. He said Canada fully supports Greenland’s right to determine its own future.
The remarks came after renewed statements by US President Donald Trump asserting that control of Greenland is vital for security interests in the Arctic, a region growing in strategic importance due to melting ice and access to resources.
Carney’s address received a standing ovation from political leaders, financial executives, and policymakers attending the forum. Though he did not directly name Trump, Carney alluded to growing global concern that the United States is dismantling long-standing frameworks for collective problem-solving.
Analysts say the speech marked a defining moment in Canada’s foreign policy messaging, signaling a shift toward realism, coalition-building, and strategic autonomy as geopolitical competition reshapes the global order.
