National Office and branch activities. Institute notes.

On 15 August retired US ambassador Derek Shearer, who is the Stuart Chevalier professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College and heads the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, gave an address at VUW on 'Foreign Policy and the US Presidential Election, What Implications for the World and New Zealand'.

Jeffrey Feltman, the United Nations under-secretary-general for political affairs, also spoke at VUW on 'The United Nations' Political Work in a Turbulent World: Diplomacy, Prevention, Action' on 6 September.

On 21 November, in association with the NZILA, Dr Rouzbeh Parsi (Lund University, Sweden) addressed a meeting at Parliament, held in association with the NZILA, on 'The Iranian Nuclear File and EU Foreign Policy One Year On'.

On 29 November a conference was held at the Michael Fowler Centre on 'The Global Future: Challenges to Security, Stability and Sustainability'. Among the speakers were Lt-Gen Tim Keating MNZM (chief of defence force), Prof Michael Cox (professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, head of programme for Transatlantic Relations, co-director of IDEAS LSE, associate research fellow, Chatham House), HE Bernard Savage (ambassador in the Delegation of the European Union to New Zealand), Adrian van Hest (partner and cyber practice lead, PwC), Andrea Vance (political reporter, One News), Sam McIvor (chief executive, Beef + Lamb New Zealand), Terence O'Brien (senior fellow, Centre for Strategic Studies, former ambassador to the United Nations, European Union and WTO-GATT), Hon Dr Wayne Mapp QSO (law commissioner and former minister of defence), Prof Crawford Falconer (professor of international trade at Lincoln University, former OECD trade leader and ambassador to the WTO), Abbie Reynolds (executive director, Sustainable Business Council), Jeannette Menzies (director, Knowledge Management and Engagement, Polar Knowledge Canada), Josie Pagani (director, Council for International Development), Olivier Weber (award-winning French writer, novelist and reporter and war correspondent in Africa and the Middle East) and Associate Prof Alberto Costi (Victoria University Law School).

The NZIIA's National Office shifted premises in December. It is now located in Rutherford House.

Wellington

The following meetings were held:

1 Aug Sir Kenneth Keith (former judge of the International Court of Justice and NZILA life member), 'Settlement of Disputes about the Law of the Sea: Reflections Following the...