Mark Carney’s Davos speech highlights a world in rupture, not transition. Australia needs to rethink its dependence on the United States and begin preparing a credible Plan B.

The Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Davos made a convincing and diplomatic appeal for a rethink of relations with the United States. He commented: “middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table we’re on the menu… we know the old order is not coming back, we shouldn’t mourn it…nostalgia is not a strategy.. we are in the midst of a rupture not a transition… in a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favour or to combine to create a third path with impact”.

Jeffrey Sachs has been very colourful in describing the US/Trump chaos. He said that he was “not sure whether Trump was sane or insane: unhinged and maybe collapsing on the job like former president Biden, Trump is perilous and reckless, gangsterism and thuggery is all on display.”

The Trump behaviour is not new. The US has broken rule after rule in attacking vulnerable and poor countries but this time the US is threatening one of its own, a white NATO country.

We need to carefully and diplomatically disengage from the United States hegemon. World governance is broken. What the US is breaking will not be repaired.

What could be the possible building blocks of Plan B

1 - A former UK PM Harold Macmillan said, “its events my boy, events” and how they are handled is how governments make their mark. We are in the habit of saying yes whenever the US clicks its fingers. Let’s start responding to such crazy ideas as Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza by quickly and politely saying NO. Or Carney’s speech! Let’s stop dilly dallying for fear we might upset the fragile Trump ego. How we handle events like Carney’s speech is an opportunity to lay down some new markers.

2 - We must tell the United States and the United Kingdom that AUKUS must end. Trump may even privately welcome the end of AUKUS and so provide relief to United States shipyards. There are plenty of off ramps to cancel AUKUS. One off ramp may be provided by the erratic Trump himself. Following his discussions with President Xi last October in Korea, Trump was asked if he saw AUKUS as a deterrent against China. As Laura Tingle of the ABC reported Trump said “yeah I do think it is but I don’t think we’re going to need it. I think we will be just fine with China. China doesn’t want to........

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