Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, the leaders of Canada and France have warned that the global rules-based order is fading and a shift to “a world without rules” was visible.
Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, said in a widely applauded speech that the United States‑led international system of governance was enduring “a rupture” and the world was witnessing great power competition.
Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, on his part, told the gathering that a global shift toward “a world without rules” appeared to be underway, and called for stronger European sovereignty and effective multilateral cooperation amid growing geopolitical and economic tensions.
What Canadian PM Mark Carney said
Carney, who spoke on Tuesday, a day before US President Donald Trump would deliver his address to the global financial and political elites, did not name Trump but reflected on the world during the US leader’s first year in office.
“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion,” Carney said.
While Carney noted that the “rules‑based international order” and “American hegemony” had benefitted countries by helping “provide public goods like open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for resolving disputes”, a new reality was setting in.
This speech *is* one for the history books. But that’s less a compliment, than a coda.
Carney has given us the words to mark the end of the ‘rules-based order’…by acknowledging it never really existed.
It was a collective illusion. That now is over. pic.twitter.com/H4gWysDBmH
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) January 20, 2026
The Canadian PM said there was no guarantee any longer that efforts to appease major powers and compliance would buy safety. “It won’t,” he told the gathering.
“The question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to this new reality. We must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls — or whether we can do something more ambitious.
“Middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney warned.
“Great powers can afford for now to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not,” added Carney, who assumed office last year.
Carney’s warnings came amid media reports that the Canadian military has prepared a model response to a US invasion.
It may be recalled that after his election as the US president, Trump repeatedly called Canada the US’s 51st state. While his annexation talk has eased in recent months, he yesterday posted an image on his Truth Social account with a map depicting Canada and Venezuela coloured with the US flag, implying an American takeover.
What France’s Macron said
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, said global law was being trampled underfoot and the only laws that seem to matter were those of the strongest.
While Macron referred to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and conflicts across the Middle East and Africa, the remarks appeared aimed directly at Trump, who is on record to say his “own morality” only limits his global powers and he doesn’t “need international law”.
“Without collective governance, cooperation gives way to relentless competition. Competition from the United States of America through trade agreements that undermine our export interests, demand maximum concessions and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe, combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable – even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty,” Macron said.
“This is, as well as a shift towards a world without effective collective governance and where multilateralism is weakened by powers that obstruct it or turn away from it, and rules are undermined,” he added.