The 56th World Economic Forum took place from 19 to 23 January in Davos, Switzerland, under the theme of “A Spirit of Dialogue.”
This year was the first that US President Donald Trump has attended the Davos meetings after a year in which he has launched a tariff war against allies and rivals alike, bombed Iran, while deploying significant military assets not far away from Iranian shores, forcibly removed the elected leader of an independent country, Venezuela, and made it clear that he is determined to exercise US control and sovereignty over an autonomous region, Greenland, of an independent European NATO ally, Denmark, and without ruling out the use of military force if the Danish government does not acquiesce to his demand.
Closer to Egypt, in the Middle East he has unveiled his Comprehensive Peace Plan to end the war in Gaza, which was seconded by UN Security Council Resolution 2803 on 17 November last year.
As a result, Trump’s participation and expected remarks at this year’s Davos meetings were anticipated with a mixture of dread and uncertainty. However, the world leaders, CEOs of leading banks and multinationals, and other business leaders present were eager to hear what he would have to say. Some observers believe that Trump’s unpredictability has become his philosophy on the international scene and the basis of the way he has conducted American foreign policy over the last 12 months.
This has been a year that has made US allies question the reliability and strength of the Atlantic alliance and rivals like China and Russia and adversaries like Iran and North Korea suspicious of his true plans in dealing with them.
Before Trump’s arrival in Davos some Western leaders took to the podium to warn of a changing world order and the emergence of one without rules. This would be a world diametrically opposed to the post-World War II international system that has been the subject of serious doubts about its relevance and effectiveness in Trump’s world view.
The most-quoted of these leaders – he got a standing ovation at Davos – was the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who delivered remarks that will be long remembered and will likely define the 2026 meetings. Carney said that “the world is in the midst of a rupture, not a transition, and the old world order is not coming back” – a stark warning indeed.
He added that “in a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favour or combine to create a third path.” These remarks were not welcomed by Trump, who disinvited Canada from joining his Board of Peace initiative for Gaza that he signed on 22 January at Davos.
Before the convening of this year’s Davos meetings the Trump administration decided to withdraw from 31 UN agencies in a move that shows its rejection of a fundamental pillar of the post-World War II international order, its multilateralism. This is the reason why French President Emmanuel Macron warned against rejecting multilateralism when he addressed the Davos attendees.
When it was his turn to take to the podium, Trump changed his tone in relation to the question of Greenland to the great relief of European leaders and NATO members. In his remarks on 21 January, he excluded the possible use of military force to acquire Greenland. However, he warned the NATO members present that “you can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember.”
He assured them that “I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.” It is interesting to note that this change of position came after a meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in which the two men agreed on renegotiating a 1951 agreement concerning the stationing of American forces in Greenland. Subsequently, the Danish Prime Minister stressed that nothing in the renegotiated agreement threatens Danish sovereignty over Greenland.
Strangely enough, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking on 22 January before a large gathering at this year’s World Economic Forum, expressed his frustration with Europe’s response to the Greenland question, saying that Europe remains a “fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers.”
This is a surprising position to take by a leader who has benefited a great deal, militarily, economically, and diplomatically from the largesse of those same European powers and their apparently unlimited military support to Ukraine without which it would never have survived the war with Russia. Speaking of Ukraine, Rutte also insisted that the “main issue is not Greenland now. The main issue is Ukraine.”
Personal envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kirill Dmitriev attended the meetings in Davos this year, the first time a Russian official has visited this Swiss resort since February 2022 when Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border. He held meetings with senior American officials.
The 56th World Economic Forum could be seen as epitomising the radical changes that have been shaping an uncertain future for the world. The Board of Peace that was announced during the Davos meetings and will be chaired by Trump is seen, whether rightly or wrongly, as a rival of the United Nations. If this proves to be true, and I honestly hope that it is not, this development will really be the official demise of the world order that was established in the wake of World War II.
American billionaire Elon Musk attended the meetings at Davos for the first time this year. He announced that his company Tesla would begin selling humanoid robots to the public by 2027. He said that “you can basically ask it to do anything you like.”
Is this a brave new world? It is still too early to tell.
The writer is former assistant foreign minister.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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