Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos stood out for its clarity. The so-called rules-based order, he said, was “pleasant fiction”, and hinted that the very idea is now on the verge of extinction. 

What the world is experiencing, in his view, is not a transition but a rupture, where economic coercion, tariffs, and threats have replaced diplomacy, and where middle powers risk being pushed aside if they do not act together.

For Western capitals, this realisation has come as a shock. It has been sharpened by Donald Trump’s return to power and his open push to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of a NATO ally. 

For the first time, the United States is threatening an ally with economic pressure and territorial claims.

For the Global South, however, there is nothing new about this moment. 

The so-called rules-based international order has always been a fiction. It has only become a fiction now for the transatlantic West. 

For much of the rest of the world, it was a sham from the moment it was proclaimed.

The liberal international order only existed in name. It was a farce, a sham, and this was proven every time the US and its imperialist allies invaded a country or engineered coups and propped up regimes in the Global South, whether in Latin........

© TRT World