Opinion | New Zealand faces tough times in era of global ‘strategic competition’ amid talk of a new ‘Cold War’
- The country faces its greatest challenging strategic environment in decades, with defence and security issues at play
- New Zealand will have to more clearly define how the country’s independent foreign policy is reinforced by closer cooperation with allies
As New Zealand’s general election nears, the campaign focus so far has been almost exclusively on domestic issues. And yet, over the past two months, no fewer than five government documents have been released outlining the significant defence and security challenges the country now faces.
That assessment matches other national security reports, defence reviews and Indo-Pacific strategies released in the past 12 months by Australia, Germany, Japan, Britain and South Korea.
All support the essential pillars of the post-1945 international system – including the US alliances in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, the United Nations, and the basic international capitalist economic framework – that have underpinned stability and prosperity.
The situation is complicated by the deep economic relationships shared by those powers challenging aspects of the existing international order and those seeking to defend it: Russia is Germany’s key energy supplier and its fourth-largest non-European Union trade partner; China is the top trade partner of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea (and Germany’s second largest).
