National office and branch activities.

• Position: Institute Notes - Calendar

European Parliament member Derek Vaughan, the chair of the Friends of New Zealand Group launched last year by Prime Minister John Key in Brussels, gave a presentation at VUW on 31 July. His topic was 71 UK MEP's View of Europe in a Post-Lisbon Environment'.

At a meeting jointly organised with the New Zealand Contemporary China Centre and the Centre for Strategic Studies on 1 August, Professor Hugh White (Australian National University) lectured on 'The Rise of China: Implications for New Zealand and Australia'.

On 12 August, before a packed audience of over 500 (spread between two lecture theatres), UN Development Programme Administrator and former New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon Helen Clark delivered the 12th Annual Foreign Policy Lecture at VUW. Her topic was 'Conflict and Development: Breaking the Cycle of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence'. (The text of her address is to be found elsewhere in this issue.)

Auckland

The following meetings were held:

23 Jul Nejat Kavvas (longtime New Zealand resident and, since 1985, honorary consul-general of the Republic of Turkey in Auckland), 'Turkey as a Centre, and No Longer a Margin'.

27 Aug Hon Jim McLay (New Zealand ambassador to the United Nations), 'New Zealand and the United Nations: Small State, Big Challenge'. This meeting was co-hosted by Auckland University's Political Studies Department.

Christchurch

The following meetings were held:

11 Jul Paul Bellamy (University of Canterbury graduate and Korea analyst), "'A Long Frustrating Journey": Reviewing New Zealand-North Korean Relations'.

13 Aug Stephen Jacobi (executive director of the NZ US Council), 'What's Next--New Zealand, the United States and the Asia-Pacific Region'.

Hawke's Bay

On 19 August HE Yong Kyu Park, the Republic of Korea's ambassador in New Zealand, addressed the branch on the relationship between New Zealand and Korea 60 years after the fighting ended in the Korean War, as well as discussing the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Nelson

On 18 June John Hayes, MP and parliamentary secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, described New Zealand's current campaign to seek a seat on the Security Council in 2014-15. This was followed on 18 July by an address on the 'Politics of the Climate' by Dr Adrian Macey, the former chairman of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

Palmerston North

On 15 May John McKinnon, head of the Asia:NZ Foundation, addressed the branch on 'Chinas Strategy for Regional Security: Implications...