What has changed in recent months is not American power. Indeed, the United States is still an almost uniquely powerful country in its ability and willingness to project military and financial strength around the world. Carney’s notion that “great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited” would come as little surprise to people living under U.S. sanctions in Iran, Venezuela, or Russia.
Last week at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney referred to the rules-based international order as a “pleasant fiction” from which “the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.” He was right. Political scientists have been saying this for years, pointing out that while the American-led postwar order was no doubt more liberal than what came before it, it nonetheless rested on the arbitrary exercise of U.S. power.
Last week at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney referred to the rules-based international order as a “pleasant fiction” from which “the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.” He was right.
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