Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jan. 20.Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press

Before Mark Carney spoke in Davos, French President Emmanuel Macron was on the same stage lamenting that the world is shifting to a place without rules, where the strongest dominate, pleading for a return to global co-operation.

After Mr. Carney’s speech, U.S. President Donald Trump talked about dominating other countries, claiming he forced Mr. Macron to double French drug prices and making threatening demands that Europe hand over Greenland.

In between, Mr. Carney’s words rang like a bell.

The old world order is over and it’s not coming back. He warned great powers that smaller countries will adapt, and hedge to cope with coercion. He warned other nations that complying with domineering hegemons would not keep them safe. He called for middle powers to band together to cope with the rapacious coercion of great powers.

The power of the speech was its clarity about the moment. From there, however, things got muddier.

The problem wasn’t really that Mr. Trump later revoked his invitation to Mr. Carney to join his “Board of Peace”........

© The Globe and Mail