Carney's Davos Address and the (Contested) Re‐Imagining of Middle Powers

ABSTRACT

By privileging the intervention of Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, in his January 2026 Davos address, the work aims to re‐engage with the debate around middle powers extending from academic scrutiny to instrumental practice. On core themes, Carney's address provides exceptional focal points pertaining to the role of this category of countries. In terms of the demand to take advantage of a new middle power moment, Carney moves the narrative about change in the international system to ‘rupture’. In terms of the supply of middle power agency, Carney foregrounds the animation of an entrepreneurial credo in state practice. That said, this article argues that notwithstanding the catalytic effect derived from Carney's address, its ability to act as a valuable guide faces serious challenges. Cutting into the image of middle powers as a uniform and viable entity is the high degree of contestation around these thematic assumptions. With a considerable degree of exhortatory cogency, Carney's address lays out the markers why the re‐imagining of middle powers is crucial. What remains with respect to the agenda of ongoing engagement—both intellectually by academics and in practice by pivotal policy makers—is to parse out the how, when and where this process takes place and push past the conceptual and navigational operational tests.