New Zealand and the Pacific: Diplomacy, Defence, and Development.

• Author: Templeton, Malcolm
• Position: Book Review

Editors: Gerald McGhie and Bruce Brown

Published by: NZIIA, Wellington, 2002, 128pp, $20.

At the time that I had supervisory responsibility for New Zealand-Pacific relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than twenty years ago, New Zealand tended to congratulate itself on its location in a region of relative peace and political stability--in marked contrast to many less fortunate regions of the world. The expression a 'benign environment' has, of course, been used much more recently. But events in the intervening years have in fact obliged New Zealand to review that complacent attitude, and to question whether its past policies and its allocation of resources have been adequate to handle its Pacific relationships. The seminar which the NZIIA organised last year to discuss this topic was, therefore, most timely, and it is good that the papers given at that seminar have now appeared in book form.

The expression 'Pacific' in this context is essentially a term of art. It refers to New Zealand's relations with the island countries members of the Pacific Islands Forum, which used to be called the South Pacific Forum until its boundaries were extended to include some island countries lying north of the Equator. It does not include the large countries around the Pacific rim. The member states, except Australia and New Zealand, are developing countries whose peoples are predominantly Melanesian, Micronesian or Polynesian. Australia and New Zealand, as relatively wealthy developed countries, are thus the odd men out, and it is generally accepted that they have special responsibilities to the region deriving from that fortunate status. The question is how well that responsibility has been discharged in the past, and what changes, if any, are needed to enable Australia and New Zealand to do better.

I should note that the seminar focused almost exclusively on New Zealand's role. Although the Australian High Commission contributed to the cost of the seminar, and a former Australian diplomat took a constructive part in a panel discussion, a separate paper on Australian policies, or even comparing the attitudes and performances of the two governments, might have provided additional illumination.

Australia and New Zealand do, of course, have different starting positions. Australia has always had its principal focus in Papua New Guinea, for entirely adequate historical, strategic and economic reasons. New Zealand, for equally understandable...