Earlier this year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney drew international attention with a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he warned that middle powers face an increasingly difficult international environment as great powers become more willing to use economic pressure to pursue their strategic interests. He called for closer cooperation among countries committed to an open, rules-based order, arguing that solidarity may be middle powers’ best defence against coercion from far more powerful states. His warning reflects a real dilemma: nations like Australia and South Korea have already faced trade restrictions aimed at shaping their political choices, and this as the rules underpinning global trade grow shakier. So can middle powers really band together to resist coercion, or are they better off cutting bilateral deals with the world’s dominant players? And what becomes of the rules-based order if the global economy grows evermore transactional? International relations researchers Dr Alexander Hynd of Asia Institute and Max Broad of Lowy Institute join host Sami Shah in examining how middle powers respond to economic coercion in an increasingly contested world.
An Asia Institute podcast. Produced and edited by profactual.com. Music by audionautix.com. Transcript link here.
Main image: (L-R) Dr Alexander Hynd and Max Broad. LIsting image: Mark Carney making a speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, 2023. Credit: World Economic Forum/Flickr.