Canada is taking an outsized role in the construction of the post-American world
This opinion piece argues that Canada is assuming a more significant role in global affairs as the international order shifts away from American hegemony. It highlights the friction between traditional diplomatic norms and the unpredictable foreign policy approach of the Trump administration during a recent NATO summit.
Why it matters
It reflects growing international anxiety regarding the stability of the NATO alliance and the changing geopolitical influence of middle powers in a post-American world.
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a media availability at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Annual gatherings of the great democracies in the age of Donald Trump have acquired a certain … rhythm. There is the meeting that takes place before the President arrives, when all is as it usually is between world leaders of the same broad ideological hue: convivial open sessions, chummy photo-ops, urgent side-conferences.
Then there is what happens after he gets there, and the desperate scramble to reconcile the chaos that ensues with the serene normalcy that went before: to insist that the torrent of lunacies foaming out of the President’s mouth from the moment of his arrival, making hash of everything the other conferees had agreed upon – not to mention decades of settled international law – were in fact in perfect harmony with the rest.
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