National office and branch activities.

• Position: Institute Notes - Calendar

On 18 April Dr Kirdan Lees (senior economist and head of the Public Good Programme at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research) gave a presentation at Victoria University on 'New Zealand's Challenges and Opportunities in the Post-GFC World'.

A panel discussion on 'The EU and Asia Pacific: a Polish Perspective' was held at Victoria University on 3 May with Prof Rob Rabel (VUW) in the chair. The panelists were Radoslaw Sikorski (Polish foreign minister), Prof Robert Ayson (director of the Centre for Strategic Studies), John McKinnon (executive director of the Asia New Zealand Foundation) and Prof Martin Holland (director of the National Centre for Research on Europe, University of Canterbury).

On 22 May Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Studies and the NZIIA co-hosted a public symposium on After the Missions: Understanding New Zealand's Security Future' at the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor. The symposium considered what we have learnt from the various missions that are now winding up, how New Zealand's friends and partners see things, what our future security environment looks like, and what our forces will be doing. It examined New Zealand's options if it wants to remain active in international and regional security.

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At a meeting at Victoria University on 29 May Ambassador Shalom Cohen (charge d'affaires at the Embassy of Israel) gave a presentation on 'Behind the Arab Spring--the Origin and Causes and the Current Situation in the Middle East'.

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On 6 June Iranian-born Dr Negar Partow, Massey University expert on Middle East politics, religion, human rights and international security, addressed a meeting on 'Iran's Presidential Election and the Future of its Foreign Policy'.

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On 20 June, at a joint meeting with the New Zealand Centre for Public Law and the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, Ambassador David Scheffer (Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman professor of law and director of the Center for International Human Rights) gave a presentation on 'Challenges of International Justice'.

On 21 June vice president Professor Rob Rabel chaired a roundtable discussion with Dr Han Duck-soo (former prime minister of South Korea and chair of the Korea International Trade Association).

On 27 June the late Michael Green's book Persona Non Grata--Breaking the Bond: New Zealand and Fiji 2004-2007 was launched by Winston Peters at a reception at Victoria...