Mark Landler

NATO allies, in the words of one former American diplomat,

had gone through five stages of grief with President Trump.

It began with denial right after he got back into the White House.

It transitioned very quickly to anger, perhaps after that terrible meeting that Trump had with Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, shifted to bargaining, continued into depression, and has finally arrived at something approaching acceptance.

I think what it has to do with is the fact that these leaders who felt during the period of time that they were negotiating with President Trump over tariffs, that there was a deal to be done, that they could do business with him, that they could get some of the damage limited.

I think in this case, they view this as far more fundamental, far more existential.

And it's one in which they felt they had to take a stand.

They had to draw a line.

This is not open to negotiation.

This is a moment where you have to stand up for your values.

Because Europe really views the system of international law, of a rules-based order, as central to its existence, to its economic prosperity, and frankly, to Western liberal democracy.

All of that

is put at risk by having a sudden rupture, a shattering of this rules-based order.

And so what you saw in Davos was a series of leaders stepping up on the dais to sort of warn about the costs of this and to begin to talk about what they need to do to respond to it.

So you had President Macron of France get up and talk about how we prefer partners to bullies.

And most extraordinarily, you had Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada deliver, I think, what's going to be remembered for years as an extremely significant speech.

in which he described what's at stake in the loss of the international order.

And he went back into history and described how this order was set up, who it benefited, of course, principally the United States.

How there were elements of dishonesty and hypocrisy to that system.

which nevertheless everybody went along with because not only did the United States benefit, but the smaller and middle powers did too, both through the economic ties that were generated by it and, crucially, the protection it afforded to the weaker states.