Davos 2026: Special Address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
The system's power comes not from its truth, but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true, and its fragility comes from the same source. When even one person stops performing, when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack. Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.
World Economic Forum • Davos 2026: Special Address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
It seems that every day we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.
And this aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable, as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself.
World Economic Forum • Davos 2026: Special Address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Q: What did Thucydides mean in this context ?
A: Thucydides' aphorism—often rendered as "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"—is being used to describe a realist view of international relations: that power, not rules or norms, determines outcomes, so great powers act unrestrained and smaller states are forced to accommodate or suffer the consequences. Carney invokes it to argue that treating that dynamic as inevitable is a lie to be rejected—middle powers should stop "performing" compliance and instead build collective strength and honest, values‑based strategies.