"Today, I want to talk about the rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction, and the beginning of a harsh reality where the large main powers of geopolitics have no constraints. On the other hand, I would like to tell you that the other countries, especially intermediate powers, like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty,"
"Every day, we are reminded that we live in an era of great-power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must. This aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable-the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself. And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety."
The global order has ruptured, producing a harsh reality in which major powers act without effective constraints and great-power rivalry intensifies. Intermediate powers retain agency and can construct a new order anchored in values such as human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Routine accommodation and compliance by states perpetuate unjust systems and false safety. Honesty and principled resistance by less-powerful actors generate influence. Coordinated, values-driven action and coalition-building among intermediate states can protect sovereignty, promote stability, and counterbalance the erosion of a rules-based international framework.
Read at The Walrus
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