How Should Southeast Asia Respond to Carney’s Davos Clarion Call?

Author: Stephen Olson

Published: 23 April 2026

ISEAS Perspective 2026/28

 

Occasionally, a single speech by a world leader can perfectly capture the zeitgeist of the moment. When Winston Churchill warned of an “iron curtain” descending across Europe in 1946, he provided a painfully accurate preview of the geopolitical framework – the Cold War – that would dominate the world stage for the next four decades.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent speech in Davos at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum] might ultimately be viewed by future historians in a similar vein. Carney posited that the world order was not experiencing a “transition” but rather a “rupture” which signalled that the old global system established in the aftermath of the Second World War was gone forever.

 

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