'The old order is not coming back': Canada PM Carney says world order in ‘midst of a rupture’ at Davos

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting

• Carney warns of US-led global order breakdown, rising great power rivalry
• Carney urges coordinated action by middle powers to avoid being sidelined
• Canada reaffirms support for Greenland's right to self-determination

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the US-led global order is undergoing a fundamental breakdown, marked by rising great power rivalry and the erosion of a rules-based system.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Carney said the world is facing “a rupture, not a transition,” a message delivered a day before US President Donald Trump was due to address the gathering.

“For decades, countries like Canada benefited from what was called the rules-based international order,” Carney said. “We joined its institutions. We praised its principles. We benefited from its predictability.” But, he added, “we knew the story… was partially false.”

“The strongest would exempt themselves when convenient,” Carney said, arguing that “trade rules were enforced asymmetrically,” and “international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or its victim.”

“We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.”

Without naming Trump directly, Carney argued that the international system shaped by American hegemony is no longer functioning as it once did. He said, noting that while the old order had delivered public goods such as open sea lanes, financial stability, and collective security, those assumptions no longer hold.

Carney said the current reality is defined by intensifying competition among major powers, where economic integration itself is being used as a form of leverage. “Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion,” he said, warning that tariffs, financial infrastructure, and supply chains are increasingly being weaponised.

For middle powers like Canada, Carney cautioned that accommodation would not guarantee safety. “Compliance will buy safety. It won’t,” he said, adding that countries must adapt collectively rather than retreat behind protectionist barriers. “If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” he warned, arguing that only coordinated action can prevent middle powers from being sidelined.

The remarks came amid heightened tensions between Ottawa and Washington, following repeated comments by Trump suggesting Canada could become the 51st US state. While such rhetoric has eased in recent months, Carney reaffirmed Canada’s stance against territorial pressure, saying, “Canada stands firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully supports their unique right to determine Greenland’s future.”

Carney concluded by urging countries not to cling to nostalgia for the past international order. “The old order is not coming back,” he said. “From the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just.”