Nigeria, Jan. 22 -- "It seems that every day we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry - that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must." These were the grave reflections of Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, delivered in his January 22 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

With such Thucydidean tendences in international relations bothering the PM, Carney feared that "strong tendency of countries to go along, get along to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety." In abjuring this tendency, options beyond accommodation and grudging acceptance had to be considered. Who better to inspire than the me...