Davos lessons Trump's return heralds new era of harsh global competition

In the heady mountain air of Davos last week, away from the parties and the backslapping tech bros, another, more beleaguered crew touted their wares: the multilateralists.

- Heather Stewart

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, representatives of aid agencies, development banks and multilateral lenders grabbed a moment with the many world leaders present, vying for attention among the glitz.

But at a summit dominated by the second coming of Donald Trump, and where the overwhelming concentration of power in the hands of a few giant corporations was blatant, theirs seemed like voices from another age.

Trump's arrival in the White House cements a shift that began even before his first term: away from the march of globalisation, towards a more fragmented world. Russia, once welcomed into what became the G8, is promulgating a war in Europe, its economy now walled up behind sanctions; China and the US are vying for geopolitical dominance.

As the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, put it: "We have entered a new era of harsh geostrategic competition." Adapting themselves to Trump's transactional, zero-sum worldview, global leaders ditched any appeal to high-flown ideas, and rattled out negotiating points.