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Understanding Today’s World: The Imperative of Principled and Pragmatic Leadership
At the World Economic Forum (2026) in Davos recently, a North American head of state delivered a presentation titled “Principled and Pragmatic,” outlining the state of the world today. The address highlighted, in stark terms, the challenges ahead and the importance of global stability, human rights, and the rule of law.
The speaker resurrected the aphorism of Thucydides, an ancient Greek historian and soldier, who concluded, “the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must,” which still resonates today.
You would be forgiven for thinking that the US President, as the leader of the free world, delivered the talk, but surprisingly – or perhaps not surprisingly – it was given by the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. In his address, he offered many perceptive observations.
He spoke about the need for the less powerful to stand up to the might of those who impose their will on others, both internally and externally.
The Power of the Powerless
As an illustration, he cited an essay by Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident, playwright, and later Czechoslovakian president, titled “The Power of the Powerless.” In the essay, a greengrocer places a sign in his shop window given to him by the authorities: “Workers of the World Unite.” The sign is not displayed because the greengrocer has an overwhelming interest or belief that the workers of the world should unite.
Rather, it is intended to appease those in authority and demonstrate his willingness to conform to the status quo. Like every other shopkeeper and citizen, he must remain compliant to avoid the wrath of the government. “The system’s power”, Mark Carney stated, “comes not from its truth, but from everyone’s willingness to perform as if it were true.”
Current global instability, largely shaped by the US administration, is prompting nation-states to re-evaluate their values and principles, their place in the world, and their relationships with both their nearest and furthest neighbours.
They are refusing to bow to economic pressure.
This movement has been accelerated by Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election. Many have found his transactional and intimidating deal-making diplomacy, his flouting of the rule of law at home and abroad, and his disregard for truth to be a catalyst for re-engaging in a new system of global and regional governance.
Checks and balances, as well as the realignment of nation-states, are now on the agenda.
If there were ever proof that the US Administration’s trajectory is to disengage from the bodies and institutions that have regulated international affairs for the last 80 years, it can be found in the US National Security Strategy.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed this concern when he stated: “There are those that believe the power of law should be replaced by the law of power” during an interview with the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on January 19, 2026.
In that interview, he offered a stark critique of global power dynamics, specifically addressing the United States’ foreign policy under the Trump administration.
Value-Based Realism
Emerging from this global shift is a new order based on principled and pragmatic values – what the Finnish Prime Minister has described as a “value-based realism”. Unlike realpolitik, this new approach accepts present realities while aspiring to create a more principled, resilient, and fairer system fit for the challenges of the 21st Century.
Whilst the transition into new models of governance and international law, encouraged by middle powers, has flaws and vulnerabilities, it is increasingly evident that continuing with the current inadequacies is no longer viable.
The current international rules-based order worked up to a point:
– It helped avoid escalation into a third world war during the Cold War
– It reduced tensions and conflicts in many regions
– It supported economic prosperity and the protection of human rights for many
– It provided predictability and trust
– It facilitated decolonisation and sovereignty
Its weaknesses include:
– Double standards
– Western-centric bias
– Economic inequality
These failings have relegated many poorer countries to the periphery of the global economy, politics, and diplomacy. Without addressing these past mistakes, progress will inevitably falter.
The system’s reliance on superpowers to control the levers of authority – such as the UN Security Council – has undermined both global stability and national sovereignty.
Consequently, there is an urgent need to overhaul the major global political, financial, and legal institutions and frameworks—including the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, and the International Criminal Court—if a more just and stable system is to emerge. A tall order, indeed, but not impossible.
Just as the passing world order was forged by the US, Russia, and the then British Empire and its Dominions, in the aftermath of the second world order, it is now the middle powers – such as Canada, France, the UK, Germany, Australia, and Finland – that are pursuing a new way forward from the dying embers of the old.
Out of this global upheaval, Alice Bailey commented in the last century, but still relevant today: “The consciousness of humanity has been definitely expanded, and the whole world at this time is thinking” (paraphrased).
She further observed: “The first result of all the turmoil has been to shift the focus of human attention onto the mental plane, and thereby nearer to the sources of light and love.”
Because this affects us all, very few in the world are spared the task of analysing, in greater or lesser degree, the rapidly unfolding global events.
Group of World Servers
The group of world servers, a subject that has been discussed frequently on these pages, is instrumental in driving the changes towards a new system that has at its core “the greatest good for the greatest number.”
This group works in all departments of human living and carry the note of the Aquarian age deeper into human consciousness.
The unfolding divine ideas must go forward, but they must not outpace human capacity to absorb them.
“Thus, creatively”, Alice Bailey wrote, “the glory which is hidden in every form is evoked and slowly brought to exoteric manifestation.”
If anything positive emerged from this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, it was Mark Carney’s presentation. His candid, wide-ranging analysis of global events felt like a breath of fresh air. “We know the old order is not coming back”, he observed, adding, “we believe that from the fracture we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just.”
So, returning to the greengrocer in his metaphor, we now look to other visionary leaders to follow his lead and to say: “We are taking a sign out of the window.”
(Photo by Julia Ly via Unsplash.com)