Mark Carney’s doctrine

Mark Carney walked into Davos like a man who knows the house always wins, but he’s tired of playing by the rigged rules. The former rockstar banker, now running the show in Canada, stood before the global elite and told them the party is over. He didn't mince words about the fractured state of international norms, delivering a eulogy for the old world order with the cold precision of a coroner. "Nostalgia is not a strategy," he said. It’s the kind of hard truth you drop when you realize the cavalry isn't coming and the old safety nets are full of holes.

He didn't have to shout Trump’s name to make his point; the silence did the heavy lifting. While other leaders are still trying to flatter the White House or pretend the chaos is temporary, Carney is the first suit to admit the architecture of the last eighty years is crumbling. He sees the US using economic integration as a weapon and tariffs like a cudgel. The message was stark: the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must. It’s a jungle out there, and Carney is done pretending it’s a garden.

His solution isn't to build a fortress and hide, but to get smart about survival. He calls it "variable geometry"—a fancy way of saying you pick your friends based on the fight you’re in. Middle powers can’t afford to go it alone anymore. As Carney put it, if you aren't at the table, you're on the menu. It’s a shift from wide-eyed optimism to cold, hard pragmatism, signaling that if the big dogs are going to break the rules, the rest of the pack better learn to hunt together.

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