The phrase “rules-based international order” became popular among Canadian leaders starting in 2017.
It is not exactly poetry, but it was meant to mean something — shorthand for the web of multilateral acronyms (the UN, the WTO, the IMF, NATO, the G7, the G20, NAFTA, among others) that arose in the wake of the Second World War, all of it backstopped by American power. This was the stuff of relative peace and stability, at least for many (but far from all) of the nations of the world, at least as compared to the destruction of the Second World War.
The phrase “rules-based international order” has come to mean the US picks up the tab in blood and treasure.
The Carney’s of the world are reluctant to give up this sweet deal having enriched themselves.
