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Michael Higgins: Carney's Davos mantra isn't realpolitik, it is moral abrogation

Taking the world as it is let's the prime minister both support and oppose the war on Iran

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And with one slick soundbite — we take the world as it is not as we wish it to be — Prime Minister Mark Carney gets to straddle whatever political or foreign fence he is confronted with.

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Difficult choices and questions can all be deferred or deflected with this simple mantra.

Michael Higgins: Carney's Davos mantra isn't realpolitik, it is moral abrogation Back to video

On the face of it, the statement could be viewed as realpolitik, but at its core it is a form of moral abrogation. It also leads to confusion and inconsistency.

Where, for instance, does Canada stand in light of the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran? We fully support the attack? We are offering limited support? We regrettably support the action? Carney has made a case for all of them, sometimes offering his slogan as justification.

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On Saturday, Carney gave a full-throated endorsement of the action. “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” he said in a statement.

Four days later, during a press conference in Australia, his position shifted.

“We support efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” said Carney. “We do, however, take this position with regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order.”

Later, he talked about the “limited” support for the action.

So is Carney saying the U.S. was wrong to attack? The great thing about the “taking the world as it is” creed is that you can leave principles and judgements to others.

There appeared to be a prima facie case that the U.S.-Israel actions were “inconsistent with international law,” said the prime minister, but he then added, “It’s for others to make those judgements. As I said, we are dealing with the world as it is.”

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Not for the first time, the prime minister’s pragmatism appears to override matters of principle.

Following his return from Beijing, Carney was asked how trade with China squared with the country’s human rights abuses.

“We take the world as it is not as we wish it to be,” replied Carney, demonstrating again how the deft use of the phrase can avoid difficult questions and conflicting principles.

During the Australian press conference, it was also suggested that Carney’s position on the Iranian conflict appeared to be at odds with his speech at Davos when he talked about the “prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter.”

It was a pertinent and pointed question, but Carney had the answer at hand: “What I also said at the Davos speech, and said today, we take the world as it is not as we wish it to be.”

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It was deflection at its finest.

In his Davos speech, Carney talked about “a rupture in the world order”; that the rules-based order was “fading” and that “the story of the international rules-based order was partially false.”

He returned to the theme in Australia.

Iran was the source of instability and terror in the Middle East, was oppressing and killing its own people, and Canada was opposed to it getting nuclear capabilities, said Carney.

“Canada has long supported the imperative of neutralizing this grave global threat,” he said.

But the international order, in the guise of the UN Security Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as sanctions, had failed and Iran’s nuclear threat remained.

“It is a failure of the international system that this country repeatedly violated international laws, terrorized an entire region, and through extension the world, including the murder of Canadians.”

But the prime minister didn’t propose a solution to this existential threat, he merely stated that “Canada is taking the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world we wish it to be.”

So how does the world tackle an evil, terrorist, oppressive dictatorship?

Well, for the prime minister we can support the U.S.-Israeli action, but also bemoan that it is in breach of that same international order that had failed to restrain Iran.

Thankfully, the prime minister does have an answer to all this failure from the international order. It is to evoke the international order.

“We would like international law to always and everywhere be respected,” said Carney. “Canada’s policy itself is to always and everywhere respect international law.”

“Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerence,” he added, calling for a de-escalation of hostilities.

So the prime minister’s current position on this conflict appears to be: Iran is an evil regime that needs to be stopped and only still exists because of the failure of the international order. The U.S. and Israel were right to launch attacks against Iran, although that is also in breach of the international rules and thus a failure of the international order.

Presumably, Canada’s support for the conflict, in violation of the international rules, is adding to all that failure.

Meanwhile, Canada fully supports the U.S., except where it doesn’t.

And everyone must abide by the international order, the one that’s ruptured, faded and obsolete.

It’s all very well for Carney to take the world as it is, but it leaves Canada with a meaningless and incoherent foreign policy.

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