Rupture, suture

It’s only the start of the year, and it seems we already have a winner for speech of the year. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney may not have a name that’s easily imprinted on our brains, but his speech at Davos will resonate for the ages to come.

Talk about calling a spade, a darn spade. Carney did not hesitate in calling out the hypocrisy of the globe, where strong nations can pick and choose what international law they comply with, and weak nations have no choice but to go along with the dictates of the strong.

This international rules-based world order could only exist if the strong nations could demonstrate to the weaker countries that they themselves, the strong, would follow their own rules, and then enforce those rules on a consistent basis. But as we are seeing today, America is hardly disposed to follow the rules it tried to fashion for the globe.

With Trump as its new fuhrer, America has tried to tariff the heck out of every nation Trump considers intransigent, and disrupted negotiated ancient treaties and established venues for collaboration. Not content with economic and supply-chain disruption, Trump has also ruptured world peace-keeping efforts with his illegal foray into Venezuela’s sovereignty. He has threatened the independence of another nation (Carney’s own Canada) with annexation dreams of a 51st state, and announced his plan to seize Greenland (making Danes so very unhappy).

With European nations sending troops to Greenland for military exercises, do we really pooh-pooh the likelihood of Trump waltzing into Greenland and occupying it with his newly conjured private army? If the best strategic analysts of Europe think that this is necessary to enforce concepts of Danish ownership, what should we think?

Carney made that even plainer in his speech.

He emphatically proclaimed solidarity with Denmark and Greenland, and their right to determine for themselves their own future. Then he pivoted to NATO, making sure to let Trump know that Canada wasn’t going to waffle on its commitments to protect other NATO members. That’s what you call drawing a clear line in the sand.

That speech wasn’t just about exposing hypocrisy, though. Carney made sure to draw up a vision, an alternate path for other nations who might still be using blinders, a call to action. He asked other nations to band together and form alternate structures and organizations, urging them to rise above the competition for the favors of a tyrant to create their own reality.

Sure, he acknowledged the need to be self-sufficient. There must be security in food, energy, minerals, and finance. But thinking about only one’s own security will lead to fortresses. In our own lingo, just islands, and no man is just that, right? Rather than isolating one’s self, beyond this reflexive reaction, the kinda weak can become stronger by joining forces, this time without the predators in their ranks. In his commonsensical words, “collective investments in resilience are cheaper.”

What probably struck a chord in many listeners was that Carney didn’t ask the other nations to abandon their principles in a free-for-all. Instead, he asked them to continue being principled, to have values, to respect territorial integrity and to avoid the use of force. And with those principles, Carney assuaged all the fearful weaklings that the current tyrant wouldn’t just be replaced with yet another tyrant.

The closing line that Carney delivers is one for the books. Literally. Short, snappy, and easily recalled.

“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

This is the line that will immortalize Carney. In that sweet sentence, he crystallized the threat that the major powers, a.k.a. bullies, now pose to smaller nations. This is the clarion call for cooperation against tyranny. For coalition, for consolidation.

I want to marry that speech writer.