Canada PM’s blunt message to Davos: the rules-based order is dead

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used a major address in Davos to argue that the world’s middle powers must band together to resist coercion from aggressive superpowers.Recent events have shown the “rules-based international order” is effectively dead, Carney said, which means Canada and other countries have no choice but to create new alliances to oppose pressure tactics and intimidation by the world’s great powers.His speech did not mention US President Donald Trump by name.Canada stands firmly behind Greenland as tensions rise in the Arctic over Trump’s repeated statements that the US must own the territory for security reasons, the prime minister said at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.The semi-autonomous island and Denmark have a “unique right to determine Greenland’s future,” he said.His remarks amounted to a call for a new architecture of cooperation among mid-sized countries. The prime minister said such alliances could be the last line of defence in an era when dominant states use their economic and military might to impose their will, and he urged joint investments in deterrence.