Moving out of comfort zones: Terence O'Brien reflects on the approach that a small, isolated Pacific state needs to adopt in a rapidly changing international climate.

• Author: O'Brien, Terence
• Position: Essay

As a trading nation, New Zealand depends upon more than just entrepreneurial flare or skilful government trade negotiators. Reliable, dependable and rewarding trade ties evolve on the bedrock of political relationships with other governments. They depend as well upon New Zealand sharing the burden of 'keeping the world safe for trade'. Like other states, it is obligated to play a role, within its means, in helping sustain international peace and stability. In the modern world New Zealand's prosperity and the well-being of its people depend vitally upon a New Zealand record of being a 'good global citizen'.

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The image of New Zealand in the modern world is by and large a positive and constructive one. There are several reasons. One basic explanation lies with its people. There are by world standards not many New Zealanders on this planet, and most of the world's inhabitants will never encounter a New Zealander or, if they do, perhaps only one or two. As a New Zealand diplomat serving at the United Nations, which is the window through which most countries observe New Zealand, it was striking how often I met delegates from other countries who had formed positive impressions about this country based simply upon a one-off encounter with a New Zealander somewhere, at some time. During the campaign to get New Zealand elected to the UN Security Council, for example, African foreign ministers would recall their agreeable formative experience of being taught by a New Zealand missionary or other teacher in their remote homeland village, and promise readily their support for the New Zealand cause.

Legacies like this come in all shapes and sizes. The ready support for New Zealand's Security Council seat bid offered by communist Albania, for example, was explained to me by its UN ambassador in terms of his rewarding experience with a small group of New Zealand academic teachers sent as a gesture of brotherhood by the New Zealand Communist Party to his country at the height of the Cold War. I recall the impassive gaze of our own National Party foreign minister when I later explained to him that we owed this particular vote to the generosity of the New Zealand Communist Party!

Image and identity are obviously connected but they are different. New Zealand's identity is something which, as a rule, is fashioned by governments through, for example, the sort of tourist publicity they disseminate abroad; but more substantively through the picture they paint of New Zealand politically when seeking to influence other governments in order to gain advantages for this country through trade, through investment or their political support for particular New Zealand initiatives like, for example, fisheries conservation. The New Zealand image and identity internationally is projected directly by the activities of its embassies and diplomatic representation overseas.

New Zealand is a trading nation. A glance at official New Zealand statistics reveal that our entrepreneurs are active in more than 120 markets in the world, which is quite a remarkable profile for a country of 4.5 million inhabitants situated in the remote South-west Pacific. Trade depends, however, upon more than just entrepreneurial flare or skilful government trade negotiators, of which New Zealand has its share.

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Experience confirms, most particularly in Asia, that reliable, dependable and rewarding trade ties evolve on the bedrock of political relationships with other governments. They depend as well upon New Zealand sharing the burden of 'keeping the world safe for trade'. In other words, there is the obligation upon New Zealand along with others to play a role, within its means, in helping sustain international peace and stability, especially in these present times in the Middle East. But the obligation extends well beyond a simple direct connection to trade--values, interests and history also command a New Zealand response with others, when threats or risks appear. The overall lesson here is that New Zealand prosperity and the well-being of its people depend vitally upon a New Zealand record of being a 'good global citizen', which supplies the warrant, if you like, for New Zealand to be a global trader.

Global citizenship

The modern inter-dependent world, with its globalising economy and freedom of movement across borders for ideas, trade, travellers and money as well as risks like crime, terrorism, people smuggling and illegitimate weapons transfers, presents a kaleidoscope of opportunity and threat. Rules-based international behaviour by governments, great and small, is vital for stability in international relations. Good global citizenship requires, too, that countries like New Zealand be generous with aid to less privileged countries, likewise extend decent safe haven to refugees and contribute to solutions for climate change and environmental threats and for protections of human rights. Accepting such responsibilities serves to establish New Zealand's international...