SMALL STATES AND THE CHANGING GLOBAL ORDER: New Zealand Faces the Future.

• Author: McIntyre, W. David

SMALL STATES AND THE CHANGING GLOBAL ORDER: New Zealand Faces the Future

Editor: Anne-Marie Brady

Published by: Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, 2019, 395pp, 119.99 [euro].

This book provides an extended debate about critical dilemmas faced in the making of our foreign policy and the conduct of external relations. The editor, a China specialist at the University of Canterbury, describes the work as a 'preparedness initiative' with the ambitious aim of providing 'contestable policy analysis' of options for the conduct of external relations that will be useful to government and academics. She assembled a team of 24 contributors, all but five holding New Zealand academic positions, who first tried out their ideas at a hui at the University of Canterbury in 2017 and a wananga at Rapaki Marae in 2018. The project had support from the NATO Science for Peace and Security programme and the result is Volume 6 of Springer's The World of Small States series. There are four sections:

* Institutions and processes for the formulation of policy.

* New Zealand's bi-lateral relations--with Australia, the United States, China, Pacific Islands, ASEAN states, the European Union, Japan and some non-traditional partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

* Multilateral relations, under the Antarctic Treaty, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, numerous trade agreements and disarmament instruments.

* Some radical alternative options and a brief survey of 'small state theory' by an Icelandic political scientist.

The background themes are clearly set out in the first three chapters. Chapter 1 highlights new dangers on the global scene caused by specific powers--Russian aggression in the Crimea, Chinese intransigence in the South China Sea, iconoclastic American behaviour by President Trump and proliferating uncertainties induced by Brexit--and more general insecurities caused by terrorism, refugees, climate change and cyber attacks. Chapter 2 outlines the institutions and processes for policy-making: External Affairs from 1943, Defence separated in 1964, merger with Trade in 1988, adoption of the title Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1993, but with intelligence provided separately by the National Assessments Bureau located in the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and intelligence collection by the Government Communications Security Bureau and the Security Intelligence Service. Policies are only arrived at after often prolonged domestic...