DAVOS, Switzerland — The private jets are departing. The pavilions are being dismantled.

As the political and business whirlwind of the World Economic Forum packs up and leaves Davos, two things are clear. After a period in which the elite gathering teetered on the brink of irrelevance, the Forum’s future is no longer in doubt. And the world of international and rules-based order in which it rose to prominence is, at the very best, endangered — if not already gone.

Over the past four days, the tiny Alpine town played host to high-stakes geopolitical moves, from Donald Trump’s climbdown over Greenland, to negotiations on Ukraine, to the launch of the Board of Peace, a body some fear the U.S. president wants to use to sideline the United Nations.

And yet, in sharp contrast to the gathering’s past as a neutral space for global cooperation, the WEF became a battleground. Leaders like Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron took shots at each other; high-powered political dinners reportedly descended into heckling and walkouts; and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called time of death on the rules-based order.

The mountain comes down to earth

“This is the largest gathering of global leadership of the post-COVID era,” Larry Fink, CEO of global asset management giant BlackRock, told the assembled delegates at the launch of the event. “But now for the harder question: Will anyone outside this room care?”

Fink — who was brought in to shore up the WEF after the chaotic departure of its founder Klaus Schwab — had succeeded in bringing star power to Davos, from Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to business tycoons who usually steer clear of the event, like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk.

Yet even as he succeeded in putting the WEF firmly on the global news agenda, Fink worried about the event’s connection to real people. He told the Forum that, “If we’re being honest, for many people this meeting feels out of step with the moment: elites in an age of populism, an established institution in an era of deep institutional distrust.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hit out at the WEF’s previous years of “utopian consensus” and “kumbaya” in an interview with POLITICO’S Dasha Burns for “The Conversation” podcast. “The inmates were running the asylum at that point,” he said. 

“This global elite fared very well under this, and … the rest of the world got substantially pushed down in terms of their prospects,” Bessent argued, pointing to the resurgence of populist movements worldwide as a backlash against the liberal elitism the WEF of previous years embodied.

Wake-up call

In a whiplash-inducing week in which social media posts, bilateral meetings and a few words during a speech transformed the nature of the U.S.’ relationship with partners, there is a sense that Europe and like-minded countries are waking up to a new reality — on which they cannot comfortably rely on the transatlantic relationship or NATO.

Carney used his prime spot on the WEF stage to warn of “a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality” of “great powers” and “hegemons.”

“The middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney said.

Zelenskyy laid into Europe for its inaction, arguing that “Europe looks lost trying to convince the U.S. president to change” and “feels more like geography, history, a tradition, not a real political force, not a great power.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for “a new independent Europe,” while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the “new world of great powers is being built on power, on strength, and when it comes to it, on force.”

Macron warned of “a shift towards a world without rules.” The French president argued that while Europe is “too naive,” it “prefer[s] respect to bullies.”

In a sign of new momentum, many leaders either dodged Trump in Davos, or jetted straight to Brussels for an emergency EU leaders’ summit. All but Hungary and Bulgaria snubbed Trump’s “board of peace” launch event. 

Leadership questions

Among delegates in Davos this week, the prevailing view was that Fink has saved the Forum after its leadership problems and its declining ability to draw in big-name speakers.

Fink has said he planned to lead for two years or fewer while a permanent chair is found. Who that could be is unclear.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, was widely seen as the front-runner when Schwab resigned, with the founder himself publicly anointing her his successor. But Fink’s break with the Schwab era has thrown that into question.

Lagarde, who reportedly walked out of a dinner Wednesday during a speech critical of Europe by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has been a Davos fixture this week, but she has denied that she would step down from the ECB early to take over. 

Fink, meanwhile, seems to have bigger plans for the WEF. In his speech at the beginning of the gathering, he pitched a path forward beyond Davos, calling for the event to expand to “the places where the modern world is actually built.” 

“Davos, yes,” he said. “But also places like Detroit and Dublin — and cities like Jakarta and Buenos Aires.”

“The mountain will come down to earth,” he added.