John Key's global diplomacy: Ken Ross examines the role of the recently retired prime minister in international affairs.

• Author: Ross, Ken

John Key was a prime minister of two halves--brilliant at home; inconsequential on the world stage. He acknowledged the latter with his self-inflicted epigram that he was 4a junior world leader'. Key was not wired for global diplomacy. He did the requisite obligations, but perfunctorily until he engaged with New Zealand's bids for the United Nations Security Council and for Helen Clark to become the UN secretary-general. Key's oft-reported 'good personal relationship' with Barack Obama fails scrutiny--there was no oft-heralded presidential visit to New Zealand. Nor, ever a second game of golf.

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John Key presents a fresh challenge for the contributors to the next volume in the NZIIA's New Zealand in World Affairs series. The four previous volumes cover the six decades 1945 to 2005: a quartet which documents the liveliness of successive prime ministers and the interesting times they had grappling with global developments.

Key will be a double challenge for them as a rare species among New Zealand's prime ministers since 1945. His diplomatic energy was seldom evident. His government's foreign policy stayed humdrum throughout his prime ministership until its starring moment, eleven days after he had exited off-stage. In his time, New Zealand was no longer 'small state rampant', but small state dormant. (1)

This has been barely remarked on publicly. There has been no quality commentary or assessment in the New Zealand media of our engagement in world affairs during the Key era. The future is bleak too--the academic David Capie spotlighting that 'diplomatic history today is an intellectual orphan, out of fashion and scarcely taught in the country's universities'. (2)

In the seven decades since the Second World War there has previously not been any need for such a description of New Zealand engagement in world affairs. Capie, recycling Fred Wood's 1944 quip, gets it right--for most New Zealanders foreign policy is 'a drama enacted on another planet'. (3) Key slots in as a flag-bearer of that cohort. He found it hard to engage in global diplomacy. Key was simply not wired for doing the hard yards or exhibiting any high intellect, the two essentials that are integral for success in this arena. Within 18 months other world leaders had passed on him as a valued interlocutor to engage with; his diplomatic dance-card was light from then on.

Back story

Key arrived on the New Zealand political scene in late 2001, with a classy reputation as an international high-flyer in currency trading. He entered Parliament in 2002. His smooth journey to parliamentary leadership of the National Party became chocolate-coated by squaring off with Helen Clark as she was extinguishing her credibility with the New Zealand electorate. Commentators on Key's pre-prime ministerial parliamentary career have persistently highlighted how he studied Clark to learn the ropes for winning the prime ministership. Jane Clifton was quick to mark him as 'exceptional' in not requiring the usual six years as a backbencher before being 'officially rated'. (4)

John Roughan, Key's portraitist, has already given us the matters that Key wanted public about his prime ministership in the revised version of John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister (2017). This is the staple reference for Key's life story. It is a light touch but an essential read--we cannot expect any memoir from Key. The New Zealand Heralds July 2008 series, 'John Key--the unauthorised biography, has important material not drawn on by Roughan that enables a sharper appreciation of Key, most particularly the telling quip of an unnamed National MP: 'Key seems to harbour a deep instinct to be the most important guy in the room'. (5) He could achieve this in New Zealand; overseas he only could when leading trade missions. Key knew as such, in November 2015 admitting that he was but 'a junior world leader'. (6)

Eight years of Colin James's weekly Otago Daily Times columns and Jane Clifton's New Zealand Listener columns, plus the numerous contributions of three New Zealand Herald journalists--Audrey Young, Fran O'Sullivan and John Armstrong (until October 2015) --are sufficient to chart Key's two disparate political halves: the brilliant performance at home and the inconsequential away appearances. Victoria University of Wellington's round-ups of the general elections Key was involved in from 2002...