Let us quote his conclusion: “We know that the old order will not return. We should not regret it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But from this fracture, we can build something better, stronger and fairer. This is the task of middle powers, which have the most to lose in a world of fortresses and the most to gain in a world of genuine cooperation.”
Many of us wonder how to resist the law of the strongest in international relations and the rise of identity‑based withdrawal in our own country. With our cooperative approach, we may feel that we do not carry much weight. Mark Carney invites us, on the contrary, to consider that it is through cooperation that we can be strong.
Of course, this convergence with the Canadian Prime Minister must be put into perspective. Relations between states are not of the same nature as relations between organizations operating in the same political space — and even less as relations between members of the same cooperative.
One may also ask him whether the cooperation he speaks of is only economic and technical, or whether it also refers to shared values, and which ones. Or again, how middle powers treat small or even micro‑states. The answers to these questions, and many others, remain to be built, and the peoples concerned must express themselves on these matters.
Nevertheless, it is reassuring, in a moment of upheaval such as the one we are living through, to hear the voice of a prime minister who is not part of the activist alter‑globalization movement calmly affirm that countries which are not great powers — “in particular middle powers, like Canada — are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that integrates our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states.”
Reassuring, too, to see that his message resonates widely, as his intervention is considered by many to be the most striking of this Forum of the rich and powerful.
This shows that it is possible to build the “humanist alliance of forces of life” spoken of by Claude Alphandéry. Let us continue the work!
Michel Tissier
