There is so much to unpack in @MarkJCarney 's remarkably honest remarks.

 https://x.com/tparsi/status/2013720256783450193

Trita Parsi

@tparsi

I don't recall the last time a world leader gave a speech at Davos that was this consequential. There is so much to unpack in

@MarkJCarney

's remarkably honest remarks. It should, of course, be noted that while it is very welcome that he calls out the "fiction" of the rules-based order, he is also indirectly admitting that Canada and other Western states happily went along with the fiction as long as the conduct of the US primarily affected other countries. It is only now when Western states are on the receiving end of American heavy-handedness, that this fiction is abandoned. Still, Carney pointing out that middle powers have significant influence within the system if they choose to stop the pretense is essential as it calls the bluff that the major powers can order the system without buy-in from the rest. As I see it, it lies in the US interest to retain a reformed UN-centric multilateral system, rather than destroying or seeking to replace it with a Board of Peace. It also lies in the interest of the US to use a reformed UN system as an instrument of burdenshifting, rather than adopt even greater defense obligations through the creation of a new, US-led system. Here are the last paragraphs of Carney's speech. "We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger. Better. Stronger. More just. This is the task of the middle powers. The countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from genuine cooperation. The powerful have their power. We have something too. The capacity to stop pretending. To name reality. To build our strength at home and to act together. That is Canada's path. We choose it openly, confidently, and it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us."

8:08 AM · Jan 21, 2026

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https://x.com/tparsi/status/2013720256783450193