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Middle powers may miss the global order more than they think

Disorder and superpower dominance are both likelier outcomes than a ‘spontaneous order’ of middle powers organised by occasional and varying overlaps of interest.

Many have applauded Canadian PM Mark Carney’s Davos speech but what follows the end of the old global order may not be benign, says the writer.

PHOTO: AFP

Martin Sandbu

Czech statesman Vaclav Havel’s essay “The Power of the Powerless” is probably not a set text in many, if any, high schools around Europe. It should be. A study of the importance of truth and reason in the face of reality-denying forces, it is a buttress to the edifice of Europe’s Enlightenment tradition. It is also a powerful reminder of half-forgotten political memories of those who lived behind the Iron Curtain and whose role in enriching Europe’s politics has yet to be given its due.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invoked Havel’s

parable of the greengrocer

who displays a “Workers of the world, unite!” sign in his shop window – not because he believes in its political message, but to live a “tranquil life”. Havel’s point is that when everybody pretends to consent, they give reality to the system that oppresses them. This is the case for dissent: to make the system vulnerable like a little boy does a naked emperor.

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Davos

Mark Carney

Politics and government