Global Geopolitics Series

As the Israel-Gaza crisis worsens and the UN remains impotent, what are NZ’s diplomatic options?

Oct 30, 2023 10:54 am UTC| Insights & Views

Global security involves managing a complex combination of law, ethics and politics. No situation exemplifies this more than what is happening now in Israel and Gaza. When United Nations Secretary General Antonio...

Israel-Gaza crisis: NZ must condemn atrocities but keep pushing for a two-state solution

Oct 16, 2023 06:29 am UTC|

It was perhaps inevitable that the shock Hamas attack on Israel would become a minor election sideshow in New Zealand. Less than a week from the polls, a crisis in the Middle East offered opposition parties a brief chance...

Foreign policy has been missing from NZ's election campaign – voters deserve answers to these big questions

Oct 02, 2023 08:14 am UTC| Politics

Tax cuts, crime, the cost of living, potholes and co-governance … these and various other issues are now familiar to most voters. But there has been one major election area missing the serious debate it needs:...

Hipkins meets Xi Jinping: behind the handshakes, NZ walks an increasingly fine line with China

Jun 28, 2023 15:28 pm UTC| Politics

Chris Hipkins anticipated a diplomatic meeting with Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader said he placed great importance on the relationship with New Zealand. Both businesslike, Hipkins made sure to stress his country was open...

NZ police need better training in privacy and human rights law – here is what should happen

Oct 11, 2022 04:42 am UTC| Life

The New Zealand Police were recently found to have been routinely and illegally photographing young people and adults in public. Many might have expected this to see an end to the practice but apparently not. Despite...

Global Geopolitics Series

Putin plays the annexation card, pushing the war in Ukraine into a dangerous new phase

Sep 22, 2022 07:04 am UTC| Politics

A lot has changed since world leaders last met in person at the United Nations General Assembly: a global pandemic, a looming food crisis, economic stress, climate disasters and, of course, the Russian invasion of...

Russia says peace in Ukraine will be ‘on our terms’ – but what can the West accept and at what cost?

Jul 23, 2022 16:13 pm UTC| Insights & Views

The recent assertion by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russias security council (and former president), that the invasion of Ukraine will achieve all its goals and that peace will be on our terms raises an obvious...