Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has challenged the world’s middle powers to build a better international order. Yet they are increasingly turning to coalitions of the willing and a patchwork of separate initiatives that risk entrenching zero-sum mindsets and making collective action harder.
MUNICH—In his historic speech in Davos in January, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney urged middle powers to confront an increasingly harsh geopolitical reality by joining forces to forge a “third path” between kowtowing to great-power pressure and going it alone. But when it came to defining this path, Carney’s speech outlined two projects of very different scope.
