National Office and branch activities.

• Position: Institute Notes

At a meeting at Victoria University on 2 December Colonel Dr Hans-Hubertus Mack, the director of the Bundeswehr Center of Military History and Social Sciences, gave the first lecture in the NZIIA's First World War remembrance series. His topic was 'A Challenging Legacy: Memories of the First World War in Germany'. (The edited text of this address is to be found elsewhere in this issue.)

On 8 December Dr Jonathan Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Center for Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA), Inter-Disciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel, addressed a meeting at VUW on 'Syria, Iraq and Lebanon: the Rise of ISIS and Sectarian War Across Borders'.

A symposium on 'The Arctic and Antarctica: Differing Currents of Change' was held at the James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel in Wellington on 27 February. It considered issues of commercialisation versus conservation, national versus international interests and the likely prospects of both areas 100 years hence. Speakers included Prof Donald Rothwell (Australian National University), Associate Prof Alan D. Hemmings (Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury but resident in Perth, Western Australia), Prof Klaus Dodds (Royal Holloway University of London, specialist adviser to the House of Lords Arctic Committee), Prof Tim Naish (director, Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington) and Prof Anne-Marie Brady (editor-in-chief of The Polar journal).

On 29 January Dr Giacomo Lichtner, a senior lecturer in VUW's School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, gave a presentation on 'The Pursuit of Closure: Mourning in Holocaust Cinema'. One of the NZIIA's remembrance series, this meeting was co-hosted with the school and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand.

On 19 February General Knud Bartels, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, addressed a meeting at VUW on 'Current and Future Challenges Facing NATO'. He is the principal military adviser of the NATO secretary-general.

Wellington

On 18 November a panel discussion was held on 'Inside the UN Security Council'. The panellists were Terence O'Brien (former New Zealand representative on the Security Council), HE Laurent Contini...