Daily on Defense: Carney rallies Davos, Trump arrives — presented by Americans for Fusion

BY JAMIE MCINTYRE

CARNEY'S SPEECH RESONATES, RALLIES EUROPE: It was another day of speeches yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with dozens of notables, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron, taking center stage.

But no speaker riveted the 3,000 attendees — including 400 top political leaders and 60 heads of state — than the low-key, but powerful address delivered by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who, without naming President Donald Trump, said the United States had upended the rules-based international order that guided the actions of countries since the end of World War II.

"More recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited," Carney said, calling on nations to "stop invoking the 'rules-based international order' as though it still functions as advertised."

"Call the system what it is: a period of intensifying great power rivalry, where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion."

'A TURNING POINT FOR CANADA AND FOR THE WORLD': Carney's words not only resonated in the hall, but ricocheted around the world as video clips and full replays of his speech flooded social media. In his opening comments, he invoked the wisdom of Athenian historian and general Thucydides, who wrote a famous history of the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens.

"Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must," Carney said. "This aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable — the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself. And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety. It won't."

"'The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.' That's a lesson from the Peloponnesian War," Brett McGurk, a former member of the National Security Council, said on CNN. "The lesson there actually is that Athens used that philosophy to seize an island, and what happened by just ruling by brute force? They lost all their allies, ultimately lost their empire, and lost the war. That's the parable."

'WE ARE TAKING THE SIGN OUT OF THE WINDOW': Carney used another real-life parable to argue that now is the time for America's erstwhile allies to stop going along to get along.

"In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless. In it, he asked a simple question: How did the communist system sustain itself?" Carney said. "His answer began with a greengrocer. Every morning, this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: 'Workers of the world, unite!' He does not believe it. No one believes it. But he places the sign anyway – to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And because every shopkeeper on every street does the same."

"The system persists, not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false. Havel called this 'living within a lie,'" Carney said. "Its fragility comes from the same source: when even one person stops performing — when the greengrocer removes his sign — the illusion begins to crack."

"It is time for companies and countries to take their signs down," he said. "The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending."

"The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy … but from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just."

"We are taking the sign out of the window."

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Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre's Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn't work, shoot us an email and we'll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre.

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HAPPENING TODAY: MUST WATCH TV: President Donald Trump is scheduled to address the Davos forum at 8:30 a.m. Washington time, 2:30 p.m. in Switzerland. Bundled up for the frigid temperatures, Trump made only a quick comment before boarding the helicopter to take him to Air Force One. "This will be an interesting trip. I have no idea what's going to happen, but you are well represented," he told reporters. It's unclear if he's still on schedule, given that he had to return to Washington to switch planes about 30 minutes into his flight after Air Force One developed a minor electrical problem. Trump landed in Zurich shortly before 7 a.m. EST.

Trump is the first U.S. president since Bill Clinton to attend the Davos summit. Initially, he planned a speech on housing affordability, but the brouhaha over his demand for U.S. sovereignty over Greenland has become the hot-button issue at the forum.

At yesterday's marathon White House news conference, where Trump went on at length extolling the accomplishments of the first year of his second term, he seemed to downplay the idea of taking Greenland by force. When a reporter asked, "How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?" Trump replied, "You'll find out."

But when pressed, Trump took a softer tone and suggested that some form of licensing agreement might suffice. "I mean, we have other alternatives. But what we're doing now is the best, the strongest, the fastest, the easiest, the least complicated," he said. "I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we're going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security and even world security. It's very important."

"So I think something's going to happen that's going to be very good for everybody," he said at another point. "But we'll see what happens. We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland … And I think things are going to work out pretty well, actually."

TARIFFS, GREENLAND, AND A 'NASTY' BINDER CLIP: FIVE TAKEAWAYS FROM TRUMP'S MARATHON FIRST-ANNIVERSARY PRESS BRIEFING

KELLY LAWSUIT SUPPORTED BY 41: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly's lawsuit against the Pentagon has garnered support from 41 former secretaries of the Army and Navy and retired senior military officers, who argue Pete Hegseth's efforts to punish Kelly for his allegedly "seditious" remarks are a clear violation of the First Amendment.

In a friend of the court brief filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the group of high-ranking veterans — some of whom themselves would be subject to recall to active duty and prosecution — said "it is their civic duty to speak," and argued that they were "deeply concerned by actions of the U.S. government that chill honest and thoughtful public participation of those who served their nation in uniform."

The group includes ten four-star retired generals and admirals:

Former Army Secretary Louis Caldera
Former Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe
Adm. C. Steve Abbot, U.S. Navy
Adm. Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard
Adm. Dennis Blair, U.S. Navy
Gen. George Casey, U.S. Army
Gen. Michael Hayden, U.S. Air Force
Adm. Gregory Johnson, U.S. Navy
Adm. John. Nathman, U.S. Navy
Adm. William Owens, U.S. Navy

"Disciplining Sen. Kelly for engaging in protected, political speech violates the First Amendment and, if permitted to stand, would chill public participation by veterans around the country. Diverse viewpoints are critical to a healthy and free marketplace of ideas, and silencing veteran voices would be especially harmful — depriving the public of experienced and informed views on critical matters of national security."

The retired officers noted that the "mere fact of the submission of this brief" in support of Kelly could subject them to retribution from Hegseth. "This decision is not made lightly: the attempt to punish Sen. Kelly suggests that public expressions of disagreement with the Secretary — even if made in good faith and supported factually — invite possible retaliation."

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THE RUNDOWN:

Washington Examiner: Greenland talk dominates among world leaders while Ukraine takes a backseat

Washington Examiner: Tariffs, Greenland, and a 'nasty' binder clip: Five takeaways from Trump's marathon first-anniversary press briefing

Washington Examiner: House Democrats eye Venezuela war powers fight through lens of Greenland

Washington Examiner: House blockade on tariff votes at risk of expiring over Trump's Greenland threats

Washington Examiner: How threats of a polar war are coloring many aspect of Trump's foreign policy

Washington Examiner: Lutnick says EU trade deal 'solid' despite new Trump tariffs and Greenland threats

Washington Examiner: Air Force One carrying Trump turns back after 'minor electrical issue' en route to Davos

Washington Examiner: Editorial: Trump's deranged text on Greenland is damaging and dangerous

Washington Examiner: Trump says 'whole country' of Iran will be 'blown up' if it targets him

Washington Examiner: Trump says his Board of Peace might replace UN

Washington Examiner: Final appropriations package includes DHS in lofty goal to avoid Jan. 30 deadline

Washington Examiner: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps poses global threat even if Iranian regime is decapitated

Washington Examiner: ICE: Minnesota won't let us arrest 1,360 criminal illegal immigrants in state jails

Washington Examiner: How Trump's oil tanker seizures add to the crackdown on Russian 'shadow fleet'

Washington Examiner: US seizes seventh oil tanker 'operating in defiance' of Trump's Venezuela blockade

NewsNation: Trump reflects on first year of second term in NewsNation interview

AP: Trump highlights familiar false claims as he reviews his first year back in office

Wall Street Journal: The $100 Billion of U.S. Goods at Risk of Tariffs in Trump's Greenland Push

Washington Post: Pentagon moves to cut U.S. participation in some NATO advisory groups

Air & Space Forces Magazine: NORAD Exercises, Space Force Missions: What US Military Does in Greenland

AP: Iran's top diplomat issues most direct threat yet to US as crackdown over protests squeezes nation

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Pentagon Sends More F-15s to Middle East as Trump Weighs Action Against Iran

Defense One: Navy's Future Fighter Jet Program Revived in New Funding Bills

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Compromise Defense Appropriations Bill Would Add Funds for Fighters, E-7

Defense News: Italy Faces GCAP Warplane Price Tag Topping $21 Billion

Defense News: French Carmaker Renault to Produce Long-Range Drones for French Forces

DefenseScoop: Trump Taps Marine Gen. as DIA Director

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Congress Sets Guardrails for Pentagon Acquisition Reforms

The War Zone: Navy P-8 Poseidon Used for Rare Presidential Combat Air Patrol Mission

Foreign Policy: Analysis: China Grapples With Trump's Radical Use of Power

AP: Men's Coach Joe Scott Suspended by Air Force Pending Investigation into Treatment of Cadet-Athletes

THE CALENDAR:

WEDNESDAY | JANUARY 21

10 a.m. 1763 N St. NW — Middle East Institute discussion: "Held Hostage by Iran's Militias: Where Are They Now?" with Elizabeth Tsurkov, non-resident fellow at the New Lines Institute and a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking; Benjamin Wittes, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution; and Charles Lister, senior fellow and the director of the MEI Syria Initiative https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register

10 a.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW — American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research discussion: "What Does the Future Look Like for Yemen and the Southern Transitional Council?" with former Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Alyemany; Summer Ahmed, foreign affairs representative to the U.S. Southern Transitional Council; Fernando Carvajal, executive director, American Center for South Yemen Studies; and Michael Rubin, AEI senior fellow https://www.aei.org/events/what-does-the-future-look-like-for-yemen

12 p.m. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace virtual discussion: "Is Iran Reaching a Tipping Point?" with Robin Wright, columnist, The New Yorker; Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow, CEIP Middle East Program; and Aaron David Miller, senior fellow, CEIP American Statecraft Program https://carnegieendowment.org/events/2026/01/is-iran-reaching-a-tipping-point

6 p.m. 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW — Johns Hopkins University discussion: "Space Force 2040 and the Future Fight," with Gen. Shawn Bratton, U.S. Space Force vice chief of space operations; John Plumb, head of strategy at K2 Space; Susanna Hake, general manager for U.S. government at Vantor; and Dennis Woodfork, mission area executive for national security space at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory https://hub.jhu.edu/events/2026/01/21/discovery-series-spacenews-space-force/

THURSDAY | JANUARY 22

8:45 a.m. 2168 Rayburn — Progressive Policy Institute discussion: "Space policy," with Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY); and Mary Guenther, PPI head of space policy https://www.progressivepolicy.org/event/women-in-policy-coffee-with-rep-grace-meng/

9 a.m. — Women's Foreign Policy Group virtual discussion: "Venezuela's Pivotal Moment: Latin American Perspectives on the Path Ahead," with Consuelo Savedra, London-based Chilean journalist; Lucia Dammert, professor, University of Santiago; and Margaret Myers, director, Inter-American Dialogue's Asia and Latin America Program https://wfpg.memberclicks.net/venezuela26#/

12 p.m. 37th and O Sts. NW — Georgetown University Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding discussion: "Protests in Iran: Is this the End of the Islamic Republic?" with Negar Mortazavi, editor and host of the Iran Podcast; Sina Toossi, author, of Dissident Foreign Policy; Daniel Brumberg, associate professor, Georgetown University Department of Government; and Nader Hashemi, director, GU Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding https://events.georgetown.edu/sfs/event/36851-protests-in-iran

3 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: "The Arsenal of Freedom Tour," with Heather Williams, director, CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues; Tom Karako, director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project; and Kari Bingen, director of the CSIS Aerospace Security Project https://www.csis.org/events/arsenal-freedom-tour

FRIDAY | JANUARY 23

9 a.m. — Center for the National Interest virtual discussion: "Greenland: U.S. Interests, Options, and Allies," with Alexander Gray, CEO, American Global Strategies; Elizabeth Buchanan and Martha Miller, both senior fellows, Center for the National Interest https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register

2:30 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW— Center for Strategic and International Studies U.S.-Japan Security Seminar," with Kristi Govella, CSIS senior adviser and Japan chair; and Nicholas Szechenyi, vice president, CSIS Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department https://www.csis.org/events/2026-us-japan-security-seminar