Signing up to ‘pillar two’ of the AUKUS alliance sits uneasily with New Zealand’s distinctive worldview – and could aggravate its wider foreign policy challenges.
New Zealanders will need to get used to bigger defence budgets – and change their attitudes to the military – if the new national security strategy is to be properly implemented.
The last of four new Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft has landed, substantially increasing New Zealand’s surveillance – and military – capacity. But how they are best deployed is open to debate.
With heightened superpower tensions, war in Europe and new military alliances forming, New Zealand’s defence review must set the right course in a dangerous world.
New Zealand has an ethical obligation to acknowledge its role in creating the crisis in Afghanistan and to increase its refugee intake to save as many as possible.