Carney’s address at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday was an extraordinary speech for a G7 leader.
Carney openly admitted something socialists have long known: that international rules-based order was “partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”
This “convenient fiction,” Carney argued, was allowed to live on so long as the U.S. state facilitated the smooth functioning of global capitalism. Other states knew there was a gap between rhetoric and reality, but were willing to look the other way as they benefitted from this system. But this integration has turned into subordination, Carney argued, and can no longer be ignored.
Speaking to other “middle powers,” Carney urged unity in the face of the interests of great powers. He acknowledged that we now live in a system of intensifying great power rivalry, where the most powerful pursue their interests, using economic integration as coercion.” He argued that Canada and other middle powers should “stop invoking rules-based international order though it still functions as advertised.”
Carney ended his speech by stating that “We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just.”
This blunt assessment of the global order has made waves in Canada and beyond. It has garnered support from many on the Left as it is seen as a real challenge to the American empire and Trump’s might-makes-right world.
While Carney has certainly called out the hypocrisy of international rules-based order, his alternative is actually just a more muscular version of neoliberalism. Carney points to what his government has done domestically as the path to show “the value of our strength.” He has cut taxes for the rich and businesses, invested more in the oil and gas sector, doubled military spending, moved to slash regulations and backed ever greater free trade agreements that put the interests of business ahead of the interests of workers.
The idea that a bunch of “middle powers”—by this he means European states, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and a handful of other states—can lead by example and create a new neoliberal global order via autarkic militarism is delusional. The fundamental architecture of the international global order is coming undone.
While it seems that Carney recognizes the reality of the new world, he is actually engaged in a retrenchment into the very beliefs that have created this hellscape. His vision of middle powers binding together to create an independent force outside the material realities of capitalist competition, while simultaneously engaging with it is simply the immersive fantasy of the liberal wing of the capitalist class. This is a work of neoliberal fan fiction that highlights that good little liberals have nothing to offer in the face of global chaos.
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