Providing New Zealand's land power: Rose King outlines the mission and role of the army in providing the government with options in meeting the challenges faced by the country.

• Author: King, Rose

I will start by outlining New Zealand's strategic context before discussing the New Zealand Army, and then touch on international dynamics, including deployments and cooperation with our ally and partners, with a focus on Plan ANZAC.

Let us set the New Zealand strategic scene and setting. New Zealand is a small island trading nation, globally connected, and is dependent on global security and international order that respects national sovereignty. We are geographically isolated, as was evidenced throughout the New Zealand Covid-19 response, and are vulnerable to the interdiction of international supply chains.

New Zealand national security objectives note that, as a nation, New Zealand supports the international rules-based order, including the use of military force to promote peace and security. New Zealand also supports alliances and partnerships, and will act if peace and security are threatened.

Force's mission

The New Zealand Defence Force's mission is to secure New Zealand against external threats, to protect our sovereign interests and be able to take action to meet likely contingencies in our area of interest. By doing so we contribute to the peace and security that New Zealand needs to be a safe and prosperous sovereign nation. Ngati Tumataunga/the New Zealand Army's mission is to provide world-class combat ready land forces that are trained, led and equipped to win as part of an integrated defence force. The army is constituted of both regular and reserve forces.

The army must provide the government with a range of deployable, sustainable and independent choices to employ land power in our nation's interest. This requires that the army generates the minimum forces needed to deploy globally, regionally or domestically, and then sustain those forces for prolonged periods once committed.

Even though New Zealand is capable of conducting unilateral operations, we do not usually conduct operations or fight alone. We must, therefore, remain able to integrate within the New Zealand Joint Force and be inter-operable with Australia, other ABCANZ [American, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Armies' Program] nations and like-minded partners. This provides the government with the confidence and ability to employ land power independently, or as part of multi-national and/or coalition operations.

By land power, I mean the ability to act decisively on land. Only land power provides persistent influence to shape intentions, deny threat...