Mark Carney tells Davos the old world order is ‘not coming back’ as Trump heads to Switzerland

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has said that the US-led global system of governance is enduring “a rupture,” defined by great power competition and a “fading” rules-based order.His speech to political and financial elites at the World Economic Forum comes a day before US President Donald Trump was set to address the gathering in Davos, Switzerland.Since entering Canadian politics in 2025, Carney has repeatedly warned that the world was not going to return to a pre-Trump normal. He re-affirmed that message on Tuesday, in a speech that did not name Trump but offered an analysis of the president’s impact on global affairs.“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said.He noted that Canada had 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.”A new reality has set in, Carney said.“Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”In an apparent warning against efforts to appease major powers, Carney said countries like Canada can no longer hope that “compliance will buy safety.”“It won’t,” he said.“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.”Trump will arrive in Davos for a showdown with European leaders on Wednesday as his bid to seize Greenland threatens to tear the transatlantic NATO alliance apart.Trump brutally mocked the Europeans before heading to the World Economic Forum, where he will be the star of a dark, self-made drama over the fate of the autonomous Danish territory.Asked on Tuesday how far he was prepared to go to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a fellow NATO member, Trump replied: “You’ll find out.”But leaders in the Swiss ski resort have closed ranks against Trump’s aggressive America First stance, with French President Emmanuel Macron vowing to stand up against “bullies” and the EU promising an “unflinching” response.Macron said that now was “not a time for new imperialism or new colonialism”, criticising the “useless aggressivity” of Trump’s pledge to levy tariffs on countries that opposed a US takeover of Greenland.Trump’s speech is scheduled for 2:30pm (13:30 GMT). But as the biggest rift opens between Washington and Europe in decades over his Greenland ambitions, Trump said he would have a number of meetings on the issue at Davos.Trump insists that mineral-rich Greenland is vital for US and NATO security against Russia and China as a melting Arctic opens up and the superpowers jostle for strategic advancement.He has turned up the pressure by threatening tariffs of up to 25% on eight European countries for backing Denmark, prompting Europe to threaten countermeasures against the United States.Greenland’s prime minister said on Tuesday his tiny population of 57,000 must be prepared for military force.Carney delivered his Davos speech after Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the country’s military has developed a model response to a US invasion of Canada.Citing two unnamed senior government officials, the paper said the Canadian response model centres on insurgency-style tactics, like those used in Afghanistan by fighters who resisted Soviet and later US forces.After Trump’s 2024 election and in the early months of his new term, he repeatedly referred to the US’s northern neighbour as the 51st state and said a merger would benefit Canada.Trump’s annexation talk has eased in recent months, but overnight he posted an image on his social media platform of a map showing Canada and Venezuela covered in the US flag, implying a full American takeover of both countries.The Davos meeting has been overshadowed by Trump’s threats to enforce US control over Greenland, with the president vowing that 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.With Agence France-Presse