Canada’s Carney Charts a ‘Third Path’ for Middle Powers

The 'middle powers' are having a moment, but can they stand up to Trump?

Some are looking to the world's "middle powers" as a possible bulwark against increasing unilateralism among global superpowers.

Canada’s Carney charts a ‘third path’ for middle powers

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has offered a principled and pragmatic agenda for nations navigating a new era of great power rivalry.

Canada PM Carney Invokes Ancient Greek Historian Thucydides to Warn Middle Powers

Mark Carney cited Greece’s Thucydides in Davos, urging middle powers to act together as economic pressure tools expand. Credit: Gian Ehrenzeller, EPA via AMNA Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, economist and former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney invoked Ancient Greek historian and general Thucydides to emphasize the strategic crossroads facing today’s international system. Carney used the reference to highlight a key dilemma for…

Mark Carney’s Cynical Utopianism

Everyone likes someone who stands up to a bully. In a dramatic speech at the World Economic Forum last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood up to President Donald Trump’s unprecedented bullying of America’s historical allies in his quixotic quest for what he calls “ownership” of Greenland. The Davos crowd gave him a standing ovation. Carney declared the present moment a “rupture,” not a transition in global cooperation. He announced C…

Maybe the United States Can Be One of Mark Carney’s “Middle Powers”

Bill McKibben on the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney’s Davos speech on how middle powers like Canada may navigate a world shaped by Trumpism and declining American leadership.