‘Rules-based world order is gone,' Canada's Carney warns leaders at Davos

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos drew widespread attention online after he told world leaders that the old world order (a reference to the post–Cold War order dominated by the United States) would not return.

He said the rules-based world order was fading because of a rupture defined by great power competition and called on middle powers “to act together” through this phase.

Carney said that if middle powers were not on the table, they would be on the menu, adding, “Great powers can afford for now to go alone. They have the market size, the military capability, and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not.”

In remarks widely interpreted as a criticism of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, the Canadian PM said great powers were now using economic integration or even coercion to achieve their goals.

Carney’s remarks came after his recent visit to Beijing and amid Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Netizens took to X, formerly Twitter, and applauded the speech by the Canadian PM. One user wrote: “One of the most remarkable things about Carney's speech is that he openly admitted that the 'rules-based international order' was nothing but a convenient fiction. Things truly are coming apart.”

Another expressed, “A very important speech by Mark Carney (17 minutes well spent if you have the time to listen). Open eyed, with a concrete, positive, strategy for what he calls the 'middle countries' in a world of hegemons. It feels good to hear.”

Trump has already targeted eight European nations with 10% tariffs over their opposition to a possible U.S. takeover of the Arctic Island. The U.S. president is set to arrive in Davos on Wednesday, January 21, 2026.