It was a moment of global clarity. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech to the world’s political and economic elite gathered in Davos this week described global realities, past and present, with a candour and nuance rarely heard from a serving politician.
The message was twofold.
First, Carney made clear that the world has changed, and the old comfortable ways of global politics are not coming back. Those who wait for sanity to return are waiting in vain. We are in a world increasingly shaped by the threat and the use of hard power. All states must accept that reality.
Despite this, Carney’s second and more hopeful message was that while the globally powerful may act unilaterally, others — notably “middle powers” like Canada — are not helpless.
By finding ways to co-operate on areas of shared interest, states like Canada can pool their limited resources to build what amounts to a flexible network of co-operative ties. Taken together they can provide an alternative to simply rolling over and taking whatever great powers like the United States dole out.
This. He said that in unambiguous terms that being able to act on principle is a right won on the back of having eliminated your vulnerability to coercion.
That means a country that wants to act in principled manner must be able to produce what it needs to survive and defend itself. Otherwise demanding country X do Y when you depend on X for your survival is just propaganda theatre produced for whoever it placates. We’re very far from that, so we’re likely dropping the theatre.
In theory we have a principled stance on Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan, and whatever is going down in Myanmar. We don’t depend on those countries, but I would be very surprised if we change our verbiage or actions toward those countries.
I think it’s gonna be case by case basis depending on the expected blowback.