Defence: striking the right balance: Gerry Brownlee discusses the New Zealand defence white paper to be produced this year.

• Author: Brownlee, Gerry

The global strategic environment has changed in important ways in the five years since the last defence white paper in 2010. New Zealand must understand and adapt to these realities if we are to advance our security and prosperity. Our immediate region remains the highest priority for defence. However, events that occur much further afield increasingly have the potential to impact New Zealanders and New Zealand interests. While our security interests may have broadened, defence resources are not limitless. Work as part of this year's defence white paper will need to ensure we continue to strike the right balance between defence policy, military capability and funding.

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This year we mark the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign. While we pay tribute to the men and women who served New Zealand then, we should also remember those current members of the New Zealand Defence Force who draw on their internationally recognised professionalism and expertise to serve New Zealand and her interests today.

In the years since the government last updated its defence policy through the defence white paper 2010, the Defence Force's utility has been ably demonstrated in the array of tasks it has undertaken. For example, it has been involved in a complex counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, including combat to ensure the security of the wider development and reconstruction mission in that country, and contributed to international missions to maintain stability and peace, as it does in the Sinai, Korea and fractious parts of the Middle East. The Defence Force has provided training to other militaries, lifting the skills and professionalism of the armed forces it comes into contact with, especially those in the Pacific. It will shortly do the same in Iraq.

Meanwhile, it has continued to deliver in and around New Zealand protecting our maritime resources with surveillance flights and ocean patrols, and been a vital cog in New Zealand's commitment to Antarctic research. The Defence Force has also been called upon to respond to natural and environmental disasters in New Zealand like the Christchurch Earthquake, the grounding of the MV Rena and subsequent oil spill off the coast of Tauranga and numerous calamities in the Pacific ranging from the Pacific tsunami to the recent Cyclone Pam that tore through Vanuatu and other islands.

However, we recognise that changes in the global strategic environment have occurred in the last five years. It is critical that...