🧵"Nostalgia is not a strategy."
This is the most important foreign policy speech of the year. Canada is signaling a massive pivot that Europe needs to study immediately. The era of the "rules-based order" is over, and pretending otherwise is dangerous.
Watch this:
youtu.be/-9EFPdcSot0?... 1/9
FULL SPEECH: PM Carney’s Most Inspiring Remarks at Davos — Greenland, Trump Tariff Threats | AQ1B
YouTube video by DRM News
The speech invokes Václav Havel’s "Green Grocer"—the idea of living within a lie to avoid trouble.
For decades, middle powers (including Canada and the EU) have ritualistically supported international institutions we knew were broken, hoping compliance would buy safety.
That bargain is dead. 2/9
Jan 21, 2026 08:30The diagnosis is brutal: Great powers are now using economic integration as a weapon. Supply chains are vulnerabilities.
When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself. But for middle powers, the answer isn't isolation ("Fortress Europe")—that makes us poorer and more fragile. 3/9
The proposed solution is "Value-Based Realism."
1. Build domestic strength (energy, AI, defense).
2. Diversify alliances.
3. Use "Variable Geometry"—agile coalitions for specific issues rather than waiting for slow, universal consensus. 4/9
This is the wake-up call for Europe. The speech explicitly mentions the Nordic-Baltic gate and EU partnerships, but the broader message is stark:
If middle powers only negotiate bilaterally with hegemons, we negotiate from weakness. We accept subordination. 5/9
"If we are not at the table, we are on the menu."
Europe often relies on the inertia of old institutions. But in a world of Great Power rivalry, those institutions are paralyzed. We need "buyers clubs" for critical minerals and new trading blocs (like the suggested bridge to the TPP). 6/9
The "Green Grocer" moment for Europe is now. We must stop invoking the old order as if it still functions.
We need to acknowledge the rupture, stop mourning the past, and build a "dense web of connections" based on reality, not wishful thinking. 7/9
Canada is offering a roadmap: Principled but pragmatic. Deepening ties with those who share values, and maintaining transactional relationships with those who don’t—without confusing the two.
Europe should follow this lead. The old order isn't coming back. 8/9
