November 18, 2014
“Diplomacy always has an important role to play if you ultimately want to find long-term solutions..." (Prime Minister John Key on Security Council role). Given the formidable list of difficult issues and recent cuts to ministry staff, how can the pool of expertise be extended?
March 15, 2014
In the last 10 years, the number of students learning the Chinese language in New Zealand universities has halved according to Massey Chinese language lecturer Rosemary Haddon. Does this matter?
December 5, 2013
At worst, the Diaoyu-Senkaku crisis could easily spiral into a (nuclear) World War 3 according to "highly credible" senior diplomats and military planners, including from the United States…
June 26, 2013
United States Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, just a few weeks before Snowden made his public claims about the US hacking Chinese servers, stressed how: "Cyber threats are real, they're terribly dangerous ….They're probably as insidious and real a threat (as there is) to the United States, as well as China, by the way, and every nation."
April 12, 2013
New Zealand’s traditional paradigm of military alignments and war-fighting with its roots in its colonial Anglo Saxon past does not provide the map Prime Minister John Key needs to address the Korean crisis constructively. His predecessor Helen Clarke’s nuclear-free diplomacy did. John Key's Foreign Minister McCully seems to understand what is needed.
March 8, 2012
… calls are made for village, or community to look after all kinds of vulnerable people. Unfortunately little is said about the kind of village that could do this and do it well
November 17, 2011
At President Obama’s Washington Nuclear Summit New Zealand's Prime minister John Key offered "New Zealand leadership on the nuclear issue."
August 19, 2011
He wanted his suburb to be a friendlier place, but knew that simply moralising, telling people what they ought to do, and making them feel guilty when they didn’t, would not work. He knew the only way to change attitudes was to…
June 17, 2011
How can climates of cooperation be sustained in the face of problems like competition which make otherwise ample resources scarce?
December 29, 2010
WikiLeaks documents confirm that New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully was a driving force in cementing in New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy
December 6, 2010
I think the right starting point is Foreign Minister McCully’s call for “cool heads” to prevent escalation....I invite him to consider how this can be translated into practice, and to examine carefully the Chinese spokesperson’s statement…
October 1, 2010
If the United States and Iran want talks, will they act as if they do? To see what’s at stake, look at Iraq. Could New Zealand help with nuclear-free diplomacy?