National office and branch activities.

• Position: INSTITUTE NOTES

On 25 November Robert Wade, professor of political economy and development at the London School of Economics, addressed a meeting at VUW on 'Western States and "Emerging States" in Global Governance: Multipolarity without Multilateralism?'

On 4 December a panel discussion was held at VUW on 'New Zealand at Paris Climate Talks: Leader, Follower or ... Laggard?' NZIIA President Hon Sir Douglas Kidd chaired it, and the speakers were Dr Tim Naish, director of the VUW's Antarctic Research Centre, Dr James Renwick, professor of physical geography, VUW, Catherine Leining, policy fellow, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Brian Fallows, a former economics editor for the New Zealand Herald, and Paul Young, researcher and campaigner, Generation Zero. (Some of the presentations from this seminar can be found elsewhere in this issue.)

The NZIIA co-hosted a meeting with the New Zealand India Research Institute on 26 February. Dr Srinath Raghavan, a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, spoke on 'India's Long Rise as an Asian Power: The Second World War and After'.

Auckland

On 3 December Zbigniew Gniatkowski (Polish ambassador to New Zealand) addressed the branch on 'Poland's Present: From Communism to Democratic Prosperity to European Crises'.

Christchurch

On 26 November Brian Lockstone (a writer on aviation and military history with a particular interest in the Western Front) addressed the branch on 'New Zealand and the Western Front, 1916-19'.

The branch AGM was held on 11 February. The following officers were elected:

Chair--Chris Jones

Secretary--Sally Carlton

Treasurer and Vice Chair--Margaret Sweet

Committee--Hon Peter Penlington, Angela Woodward,

John Richardson, Becci Louise

Following the AGM, Rosemary Banks, the recently retired New Zealand ambassador to France, Portugal and Senegal and former deputy secretary of foreign affairs, spoke on 'An...