Mark Carney's Embrace of the Multipolar Moment and Middle Power Diplomacy

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently gave a notable speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland acknowledging the necessity of Canada engaging in multipolar diplomacy, something we have long advocated as Canadian Republicans.

Within the context of our ever changing global political environment, Carney has decided to make a bold stand on Canada’s position in the world, as more than just “America’s hat,” not even just as a sovereign state within the Western Bloc, but as a middle power on the world stage.

This is in the face of consistent threats from the American Empire who until recently made up pretty much the entirety Canadian defense policy.

As it becomes undeniable that we are in the midst of the twilight period of the American Empire being the world’s hegemonic superpower, we can and must learn from the experiences of those former Eastern Bloc countries who managed to sever their fates from that of the rest of their neighbors following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Our collective engagement and decision making will determine if we will be:

• The middle power of yesterday, by looking at the experiences of Yugoslavia, with the collapse of civic cohesion and political violence based on ethnic lines.
• The middle power of tomorrow, by looking at the experiences of Poland, for how to break from our failing bloc in a way that lets us decide who to associate with and raise our living standards rapidly.
• The worst case scenario, by looking at the experiences of Ukraine, becoming a suicide nation completely at the mercy of foreign powers.

As it stands, Canada may not have what it takes to be a full on great power, but with a population of roughly 42 million people, and abundant natural resources, the road to being a middle power is very attainable if the country can prioritize its sovereignty and self sufficiency.

With uncertainty growing by the day South of the border, Canada has to prioritize building a capable military to safeguard our territorial integrity so we actually stand a fighting chance if the United States of America splits into multiple opposing factions and descends into a period of warring states.

However, Canada’s real chance to assert itself, as not only a middle power, but a top-tier middle power, comes through our economic and soft power interest, due to our incredibly diverse population that could allow us to be a neutral middle ground for warring parties to meet and negotiate much like Qatar acts as today. To be a middle power is to have real sovereignty while great powers compete for influence, in its worst case this manifests as civil strife and high levels of corruption, as sectarian governments remain weak and the populace turns a blind eye for ideological alignment, but ideally, this presents as good relations with surrounding power poles with abundant support and favourable trade deals from those seeking influence.

The recent deal with the People’s Republic of China signed by Carney should remind us that to be a proud sovereign country we should aim for strategic non-alignment to avoid provoking any surrounding power, particularly America, as we do share a massive land border, and they would have legit grievances if we decided to try and join an Eastern military alliance, just as the Russian Federation had legitimate concern about the prospect of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

We should aim to foster economic cooperation with Russia and China while maintaining as positive as possible relations with America to maximize our economic potential, and become and arbiter between these power bloc to better navigate the tense relations between its competitors and America.

In the emerging age of multipolarity, there is great potential in uniting with other non-aligned states, especially countries in the Global South, through trade deals, multilateral alliances, and international organizations.

Canada could make an ideal neutral middle power for unity of non-aligned states on economic, diplomatic and even military terms. We have an excellent international reputation and our country is home to a large population of Canadians with origins from all over the world. We already have the natural resources, and by providing education and training to our potential partners, we will not only have greater access to the necessary manpower for securing our mutual defense, we will be able to connect with the human capital for enabling our mutual development, as well.

Carney’s Davos speech and his détente with China is a significant step in the right direction, as our country needs to put professionalism and real politik interests over of moralizing about foreign policy while being subservient to an incredibly immoral power, the American Empire.