Minoru Saba1d ago

Listening to pundits nattering about Japan's geopolitical predicament, came across the word "コウモリ外交(kōmori-gaikō: bat diplomacy)" and found it was linked to Aesop's fable "The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat"[1]
Interesting that the moral is "He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends"[2] and not "All is fair in love and war"[3] ...or "birds (bats, i.e. middle powers) of a feather".

1. https://classics.mit.edu/Aesop/fab.4.4.html
2. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Fables_of_%C3%86sop_(Jacobs)/The_Bat,_the_Birds,_and_the_Beasts
3. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/alls-fair-in-love-and-war.html
#MiddlePowers

DarkShadowJan 29

It's high time the world stuck together and turned its collective back on the #USA in every way.

(While watching out for their backstabbing attempts, of course.)

Even if the #US makes it through this #Trump nightmare, the US must NEVER be trusted again. The US is neither reliable or safe.

#power #democracy #RulesBasedOrder #greatpowers #nato #un #us #Europe #newworldorder #middlepowers

The Japan TimesJan 28
Mark Carney’s Davos speech warned that a Trump-led rupture in the global order leaves middle powers to act collectively and diversify away from U.S. dependence, with Japan uniquely exposed. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2026/01/28/world/the-age-of-middle-powers/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #worldnews #canada #markcarney #us #donaldtrump #davos #greenland #nato #davos #middlepowers
The age of ‘middle powers,’ hegemons and hypocrites

The future of global liberalism is dependent upon those countries that have sheltered under the U.S. security umbrella.

The Japan Times
Egberto WilliesJan 26

Davos Shock: Mark Carney Urges Nations to Break Free From U.S. Coercion

At Davos, Mark Carney delivers a historic rebuke of Trump’s America, calling on nations to break free from coercion and rebuild multilateral trust.

#CanadaPolitics #Davos #democracy #EconomicCoercion #globalDecoupling #IndependentMedia #MarkCarney #MiddlePowers #Multilateralism #ProgressivePolitics #TrumpForeignPolicy #USDecline #WorldEconomicForum https://wp.me/p1OjMZ-oDg
Egberto WilliesJan 25

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at World Economic Forum in Davos

At Davos, Mark Carney warns the rules-based order has ruptured, urges middle powers to stop pretending, build shared resilience, and wield values-based realism to confront great-power coercion.

#CanadaForeignPolicy #Davos #democracy #EconomicCoercion #geopolitics #GlobalGovernance #GlobalOrder #GlobalSouth #GreatPowerRivalry #HumanRights #InternationalRelations #MarkCarney #MiddlePowers #Multilateralism #ProgressiveForeignPolicy #RulesBasedOrder #StrategicAutonomy #SustainableDevelopment #TradePolicy #ValuesBasedRealism #WorldEconomicForum https://wp.me/p1OjMZ-oCV
Just Me 🇨🇦Jan 25
PM Mark Carney heads to #Australia in March, reinforcing Canada’s role as a “middle power” after his Davos remarks on resisting economic weaponization. Visit follows a growing Canada‑Australia partnership on critical minerals. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-carney-visit-australia-march-2026-01-24/ #MarkCarney #AustraliaVisit #MiddlePowers #Trade #Canada
DarkShadowJan 25

As the world inches back to a pre-WW2 order, the 'middle powers' face a grave new challenge

#power #democracy #RulesBasedOrder #greatpowers #trump #carney #nato #un #us #Europe #newworldorder #middlepowers

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99kkerr93ko

As we return to a pre-WW2 order, the middle powers face a challenge

With economic stagnation and extremes of inequality comes corrosion of trust in democratic institutions. So Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of what Carney called a "rupture" with the post-WW2 order.

BBC News
Sune AukenJan 23

Part of the strength of middle powers is that they are so much easier to align with for small powers, and thus it makes sense for a truckloads of us little ones to band together with the middle powers for reach and protection - in turn adding a lot to their power. We saw it with Ireland in connection to Brexit. And my country, Denmark, sees it now.

Thank you middle power, and thank you too, all our fellow small critter nations.

#Carney #Davos #MiddlePowers #Ireland #Brexit #Trump #Denmark

Just Me 🇨🇦Jan 23

"If the middle powers answer Carney’s call, they could form an economic and defense alliance that rivals American power." "A nuclear-armed defense and industrial alliance that cannot simply be cowed into submission." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/opinion/canada-carney-trump-greenland-nato.html?campaign_id=301&emc=edit_ypgu_20260122&instance_id=169699&nl=your-places:-global-update&regi_id=87303496&segment_id=214082&user_id=504376192391f41889ee1725cda55125

#cdnpoli #Canada #MiddlePowers

Opinion | The Carney Doctrine

How do you preserve the free world when America goes rogue?

The New York Times
Tony MeredithJan 22
That Board of Peace, again.
One small aspect is that the US State Dept has thrown away its professional capacity and skills. Almost any of us, myself included, could have done better in planning a path to a viable launch event.
Diplomacy with the US now routes only through Trump and a competitive scrum of courtiers.
All credit to #Kosovo in securing a bigger global profile. And to #Pakistan as the nuclear anchor of the Islamic volunteers.
1/2
#diplomacy #MiddlePowers #PoorMarco #PoorGaza