November 18, 2014

Cosmopolitan Public Conversations to Support Security Council re ISIS +?

“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

Using technology to connect well in an interconnected world

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

Fears China Diaoyu/Japan Senkaku Stand-off could lead to World War 3

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

From the Edward Snowden case to a new Switzerland of the Southern Hemisphere?

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

How New Zealand can help prevent Korean war

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

“It takes a village to raise a child” – OK, but where’s the village?

… 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

Threatened Israeli Airstrike on Iran: NZ Nuclear-free Liaison Proposed

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

Community as local place where everyone has something to offer

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

Ladder Award: Martin Nowak for his mathematical explanation of “Why we need each other to succeed”

How can climates of cooperation be sustained in the face of problems like competition which make otherwise ample resources scarce?
December 29, 2010

Ladder Award proposed for Murray McCully – driving-force behind nuclear-free consensus

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

New Zealand should help cool Korean and United States heads

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

Local and global village security: Iran-United States dialogue (2)

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?