Multilateralism for middle powers

" Multilateralism is shorthand for the much-invoked “rules-based international order”; multipolarity is the world of competing spheres of interest, what Stubb calls “an oligopoly of power”, where the strong do what they will and the weak do what they must.

We are not simply in a transition; we are in a fight for a future world order. And the path to a healthy outcome necessarily runs through international institutions, from the UN to settings far beyond it, where we must rethink membership and power for global cooperation to survive.The world is being reshaped by the “structural” forces of demography, climate and technology,

Part of the problem, Stubb argues, is that “the US is not a modern society by European or Asian standards”. This helps to explain the growing influence of a radical form of evangelical Christianity within the Trump administration. But it also accounts for the absence of adequate healthcare, education and housing that plagues the US, in particular, and neoliberal economies like Australia’s more generally.

Without strong multilateral systems, all interstate deals become transactional. A multipolar world runs on self-interest. A multilateral world makes the common interest a self-interest. " >>
https://theconversation.com/finlands-president-alexander-stubb-has-some-ideas-to-save-the-international-order-and-ourselves-280153
#Multilateralism #MiddlePowers #Australia #TheWest #InternationalOrder #SelfInterest #oligopoly

World Disorder Edges Toward Event Horizon as 'Age of Disruption' Bites Deep

Canadian PM Mark Carney urged middle-sized countries to band together at Davos 2026 to face global power struggles and economic risks.

#Davos2026, #GlobalRisks, #MarkCarney, #MiddlePowers, #Geopolitics

https://newsletter.tf/canada-pm-carney-middle-powers-unite-davos-2026/

The world faces more economic risks than last year, with leaders like Canada's PM calling for countries to work together.

#Davos2026, #GlobalRisks, #MarkCarney, #MiddlePowers, #Geopolitics
https://newsletter.tf/canada-pm-carney-middle-powers-unite-davos-2026/

US becoming dominant military force in Northern Territory, report says

"The US is building a functioning operating ecosystem in northern Australia while Australia risks becoming a secondary user of its own strategic geography." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-17/nt-usa-becoming-dominant-military-force-northern-territory-aspi/106460770
#sovereignty #Australia #war #AUKUS #MiddlePowers #subordination #SubimperialEnforcer #DistanceAndDestiny #NT

Australia’s ‘strategic infantilisation’ by the US is undermining our security in Asia

"We are a perennially anxious nation, seemingly unable to come to terms with the reality of our geographic position. We reflexively identify with faraway members of the Anglosphere, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. But even more consequentially, we outsource responsibility for our foreign and security policy to one great and powerful friend or another. "

Others "view us as an appendage of America’s grand strategy, with little capacity for independent thought, much less action...This may spare our policymakers from the challenge of thinking independently. >>
https://theconversation.com/australias-strategic-infantilisation-by-the-us-is-undermining-our-security-in-asia-278068
#sovereignty #Australia #war #AUKUS #MiddlePowers #belonging #Anglosphere #anxiety #subordination #SubimperialEnforcer #DistanceAndDestiny