Why UK must rise to Canadian PM Mark Carney's call to arms to build a new world order
As Donald Trump fractures the existing world order, the UK must work with the European Union and other liberal democracies to make a new and better one
“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just. This is the task of the middle powers, who have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from a world of genuine cooperation.”
Seeing a technocratic former head of the Bank of England become the standard bearer for the free world was not, I suspect, on many people’s bingo cards at the start of this week. That was until Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s truth-bomb of a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, calling out both economic intimidation by the great powers – and the comforting illusion that we can return to the way things once were.
Carney’s speech must mark the moment that liberal democracies – including both the UK and the EU – forget our lost years of political squabbling and complacency, recommit to our values, and step up to the challenges we face today.
He never spoke Donald Trump’s name, but we know all-too well the bleach-blonde focus of his speech. Just days ago, the US President was threatening 200 per cent tariffs on Nato allies and a military conquest of Greenland. The prospect of attacks on former friends has receded for the moment but as long as Trump is in the White House, we are only ever one Truth Social spree from another crisis.
That is why Carney’s call to arms is so urgent. If we are going to rise to the moment, we must reject nostalgia for the “good old days”, and instead build new networks of cooperation for the years ahead.
Moving on is always easier said than done. Just take the fallout of the referendums of 2014 and 2016, which have poisoned our discourse and clogged up our politics for over a decade. If we move on from what might have been, however, we can turn to focus on what can be now.
That means leaving the old Brexit red lines behind. It means taking a pragmatic approach based on what works. Instead of being in hock to the past, we need to start taking the steps that will make our country richer and more secure in the future.
It should also mean the EU taking a more open approach themselves on issues like the SAFE defence pact, and easing up on the hard-bargaining approach seemingly advocated by some member states. That is not because the UK deserves handouts, but because we can all gain – and regain the initiative taken by illiberal forces – by sharing political wins from ally to ally.
Mutual trust takes effort to regain, but we have to build what we claim to believe in. If we answer nationalism with nationalism, belligerence with belligerence, we won’t just make ourselves weaker and poorer – we will undermine the very values of liberal democracy that we are supposed to be working towards.
The old world is not coming back – but if we commit to a vision and a set of values like those outlined by Mark Carney this week, we might just make this new world better.
William Deans is chief of staff to Alistair Carmichael MP, and holds an MSc in nationalism and ethnic conflict
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