Last Tuesday I wrote about the Five Eyes organization and in passing made some remarks about New Zealand's defense posture that could be interpreted as patronizing. Those should be taken as referring to what its posture has been over the last three decades.
The pace of change has us editing our work "on the fly" as along comes an article at Responsible Statecraft that makes a pretty good case for a U-turn happening in NZ defense policy. Hat tip to RealClearWorld for the link. See author Geoffrey Miller's introduction.
New Zealand apparently wants to run with the pack now countering China — and may seek to join AUKUS, too.
Not just one, but three new reports were released simultaneously on Friday morning by the country’s Minister of Defence, Andrew Little.
These include New Zealand’s inaugural National Security Strategy, along with a military-focused Defence Policy and Strategy Statement. A third document, the “Future Force Design Principles,” spells out some further general recommendations for reconfiguring New Zealand’s military.
Collectively, the publicly released plans – which run to over 12,000 words on 82 pages — add up to the biggest shake-up for New Zealand’s foreign and defense policy in a generation.
The new plans are controversial in NZ, those with longtime attachments to the former "go it alone" policy are, as the Brits say, not best pleased. File the above changes under "In progress, not yet the final word."
