Jim Bolger's global diplomacy: Ken Ross assesses the National prime minister's contribution to the process of establishing New Zealand as a progressive small state.

• Author: Ross, Ken

Jim Bolger ranks alongside David Lange and Helen Clark as the three outstanding support acts to Norman Kirk's best-for-us global diplomacy brand--New Zealand as a progressive small state, with deep internationalism central to our national identity. Bolger's capable performance derived most from his strong maturity of mind and an international landscape that played to his capability. Bolger's support team was the best that any of New Zealand's post-1945 prime ministers had. Foreign minister Don McKinnon and top mandarin Simon Murdoch were the standouts in the support team. Bolger's signature moment was his hosting the 1995 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

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'When I replied that I was a New Zealander, he shook my hand again and said "thank you for your government's courageous stance in the Security Council and telling the world what was really happening here in Rwanda".' (David Shearer) (1)

Shearer's recall is of the most impressive episode of Jim Bolger's global diplomacy--our chairing the United Nations Security Council in April 1994 when Rwanda was the foremost issue. It is emblematic for why Bolger locks in with David Lange and Helen Clark as the three outstanding support acts to Norman Kirk's best-for-us global diplomacy brand. It is also an episode little highlighted in New Zealand but legendary among the 'wise owls' at the top global councils for why New Zealand can be turned to for a high international performance in critical moments--the essence of the Kirk brand.

Global diplomacy is what prime ministers do to advance their government's foreign policy. This article is a short version of the chapter on Bolger that is to be in my forthcoming book on the global diplomacy of New Zealand prime ministers since 1945.

Bolger's capable global diplomacy derived most from his strong maturity of mind. He was ably backed by the best support team that any of New Zealand's fifteen post-1945 prime ministers has had. Foreign Minister Don McKinnon and top mandarin Simon Murdoch were the standouts in Bolger's global diplomacy team.

Crucially, Bolger had a global landscape that played to his capability. A succession of international developments boosted his prime ministership into a substantial success for New Zealand's world profile. The highly regarded performance on the UN Security Council in 1993 and 1994; being at the forefront of the global protests against France resuming nuclear testing at Moruroa in 1995; and his capable hosting of the 1995 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) are Bolger's prime moments in global diplomacy.

Thinking revealed

Less than six months after he concluded his time as prime minister in December 1997, Bolger had told his story, and well, in his memoir Bolger: A View from the Top--My seven years as Prime Minister. Much of the memoir focuses on his global diplomacy. A decade later the Stout Research Centre organised a conference on his prime ministership--the proceedings, edited by Margaret Clark as The Bolger Years 1990-1997, include a fine account of Bolger's global diplomacy, which is also well covered in the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs' New Zealand in World Affairs Vol IV 1990-2005.

Bolger has laid out some of the thinking that enables us to appreciate his maturity of mind. His introductory comments to the Stout Centre's conferences on the prime ministerships of Sir Keith Holyoake and his own are instances. (2) He also made thoughtful comments at the Stout conference that focused on the first term of David Lange's government. (3) When Bolger was interviewed in April 2013 on Radio New Zealand's Sunday morning programme by Chris Laidlaw he revealed his thinking on global developments, showing him to be very much in the tradition of Norman Kirk.

Bolger is a poignant illustration of a tough reality for New Zealand prime ministers. In his memoir, he writes about his encounters with John Major, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But, except for Howard, he is not listed in the indexes of their memoirs, or, in Keating's case, in the absence of a memoir, the biographies that two...