Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1542822
19 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 JANUARY 2026 OPINION the theatre of global leadership plicitly on the idea that systems collapse not only through coer- cion but through participation in fictions. That organisations, countries and elites sustain fragile orders by acting as if they still believe in narratives they privately doubt. That critique extends beyond geopolitics. It applies equally to economic governance, cor- porate behaviour, institutional reform and public discourse. Davos is not the cause of glob- al dysfunction. But it has be- come its mirror. It reveals a world that knows it is in trouble but has not yet found the courage to redesign itself at the pace required. It shows leaders who speak flu- ently about transformation but remain trapped by domestic incentives. It showcases CEOs who acknowledge systemic risk while continuing to optimise for short-term shareholder log- ic. It convenes institutions that diagnose complexity but strug- gle to coordinate action. Most troubling aspect is inertia In a world facing climate vola- tility, technological disruption, demographic transitions, geo- political fragmentation, supply chain weaponisation and insti- tutional decay, incrementalism is no longer stability. It is risk. This is why execution matters more than rhetoric. The global economy is no longer shaped primarily by dec- larations. It is shaped by supply chains, capital flows, energy systems, industrial capacity, technological sovereignty and institutional resilience. Coun- tries that understand this are already acting accordingly. They are not waiting for mul- tilateral consensus. They are building domestic capability. They are reshoring strategic sectors. They are investing ag- gressively in infrastructure, skills and innovation ecosys- tems. They are treating resil- ience not as a slogan but as a national project. Those that remain trapped in performative governance will gradually lose relevance. Davos exposes this diver- gence. Some leaders arrive to showcase results. Others arrive to defend narratives. Some ar- rive with delivery behind them. Others arrive with documents. The uncomfortable question is not whether Davos remains useful. The question is wheth- er the broader architecture of global leadership still has the capacity to translate insight in- to action. There is still value in dialogue. But dialogue without delivery becomes delay. And delay in a fractured world is not neutral. It compounds vulnerability. Perhaps this is the real lega- cy of this year's Davos. Not the declarations. Not the panels. Not the press releases. But the contrast between those who are beginning to speak plainly about power, dependency and resilience, and those still in- vested in preserving the perfor- mance of normality. What matters most Carney's speech felt less like diplomacy and more like lead- ership. It did not offer com- fort. It offered clarity. It did not pretend that cooperation is guaranteed. It argued that cooperation must be con- structed deliberately, through coalitions, credibility and capa- bility. It did not treat values as marketing language. It treated them as something that must be operationalised through strength. That is a profoundly differ- ent tone from the language that usually dominates inter- national forums. If Davos is to retain relevance, it will not be through more panels or better branding. It will be through more honesty, fewer scripts, more uncomfortable truths and fewer rehearsed narratives. It will require leaders to speak not as performers but as archi- tects. Not as communicators but as builders. Until then, Davos will contin- ue to feel like what it increas- ingly resembles. A high-end conference about a world that no longer exists, discussing problems that everyone un- derstands, using language that everyone recognises, while struggling to generate the one thing that now matters most— execution. addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (Photo: World Economic Forum) If Davos is to retain relevance, it will not be through more panels or better branding. It will be through more honesty, fewer scripts, more uncomfortable truths and fewer rehearsed narratives