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Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Regional Security

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Diplomacy and the Pursuit of Regional Security ISSN 1172-3416 MACMILLAN BROWN CENTRE FOR PACIFIC STUDIES PACIFIC POLICY BRIEF 2016/7 iplomacy and the pursuit of regional security D 1 Michael Powles Policy summary of paper presented at the regional conference on Rethinking regional security: Nexus between research and policy, November 25-26, 2015, University of Canterbury. A partnership between Macmillan Brown Center for Pacific Studies (University of Canterbury), Australian National University, United National Development Program and International Political Science Association 1 Michael Powles is a former New Zealand diplomat. 1 of 4 ost significant threats to security in For New Zealand to have significant the Pacific Islands region today are influence in support of regional security, M internal rather than external. One has depends on the quality of our diplomacy and only to look at the extraordinary situation the nature of the policies being pursued. So today in Nauru, the governance issues in the question I would like to raise with you is Papua New Guinea, the constitutional whether and how New Zealand diplomacy concerns in Vanuatu, and the dominance of could be improved in our home region. the military in Fiji. And in considering them, we need to remember that the Biketawa At the conference in Apia this year which I Declaration, agreed 16 years ago now, mentioned earlier, a very senior regional provides a mechanism that can be used to official, a Pacific Islander who has been combat threats to security in the region, positive about New Zealand's role in the including internal problems. Pacific over many years, asked me whether New Zealanders were aware how unpopular Some years ago, it was thought by many that their country was in the Pacific Islands these China would come to pose a significant threat days. I was startled. But investigation to security in the region. Academic observers, suggested that there could be several areas particularly but not exclusively from Australia deserving investigation: and the United States talked at a conference in Canberra about China being a potential threat • Trade Policy: Concern was expressed to the region and about the likely inability of about New Zealand's position in recent Pacific island governments to cope with that regional trade negotiations. The issues, as threat. I still remember vividly being ridiculed always, are complex but the most frequent by a leading professor there for even complaint I heard related to New Zealand's suggesting that the views being expressed requiring reciprocity for tariff reductions. I about the China threat and the likely lack of was startled by that. More than 35 years Pacific countries' capacity to cope with it ago I was with then Prime Minister Robert might be a bit over-stated and that indeed Muldoon at a Pacific Forum leaders' China would bring opportunities as well as meeting held in Tarawa. He was promoting challenges. Fast forward ten years to a what was then a new non-reciprocal conference in Apia earlier this year on China regional trade arrangement, called and the Pacific and it was evident that Pacific SPARTECA. I clearly remember Fiji's participants are clearly confident about their Prime Minister, Ratu Mara, who was relations with China. Even most of the unhappy with Muldoon over other issues, academics present seemed to have abandoned questioning Muldoon closely on the their fears of a demonic "threat". SPARTECA provision that tariff concessions by Australia and New Zealand Certainly, there are issues and some problems would be non-reciprocal. But Muldoon was that China's increased involvement in the adamant, saying it would not be in New Pacific has brought with it. But they are not of Zealand's long-term interests to impose the the dimension predicted in the early 2000s. burden of reciprocity on the developing island economies of our neighbors. More worrying is the tension in the North Pacific involving China and both the US and • So, if my recent information is correct, Japan. War is certainly not inevitable, but the New Zealand seems to be going risks are real, particularly now that the armed backwards. Reciprocity was undesirable in forces of opposing countries are challenging the 1980s but is essential now? Amusing to each other. And if hostilities should think of the controversial Robert Muldoon somehow break out, of course there would be (dawn raids and all that) as being enormous consequences for the whole Asia comparatively more liberal and generous Pacific region, including the Pacific Islands. towards the region. But that is not an issue today. 2 of 4 • Development cooperation: Here, too, there less complicated than the challenge at are complaints of a less conciliatory New present being faced by European countries). Zealand approach in recent years. The respected Professor Terence Wesley-Smith • Decolonisation: New Zealand was a of University of Hawai'i talked at the Apia pioneer in the field of decolonisation. At the conference I mentioned earlier of a "master global level, Prime Minister Peter Fraser strategy" heavily influenced by "neo-liberal played a leading role in creating the UN ideology" and of an "unpopular aid- Trusteeship system and enshrining it in the leveraged regional reform agenda". At the UN Charter. Then New Zealand led the way same conference, Professor John Overton of in the decolonisation of the Pacific, with Victoria University of Wellington referred independence for Samoa in 1962 and then to a "retro-liberal turn among traditional aid devising special arrangements to meet the donors" and to the most notable change wishes of the people of the Cook Islands being in New Zealand's aid. and Niue. Later, New Zealand was the only • There was also mention at that conference former metropolitan power to cooperate of a more aggressive nationalism becoming fully with the UN Committee on associated with both Australian and New Decolonisation, something it still does Zealand aid in the Pacific. today. It's not surprising that NZ's role in Pacific decolonisation has been called its • Perhaps in the interests of more influential greatest hour in the Pacific. New Zealand diplomatic and policy support of regional security, we should also • Today, however, our situation is less clear. examine closely the policy drivers of our When the issue of re-inscription of French aid policies in the Pacific. Polynesia arose at the UN in 2013, neither New Zealand nor Australia actively supported their Pacific Island partners. At • Climate change: Clearly New Zealand's least New Zealand did not go as far as an climate change policies, like those of most Australian minister with Pacific states, are determined by domestic responsibilities, who said it was appropriate priorities. Even so, it's surprising that New for Canberra to be guided by Paris (by Zealand has not found a way of Paris?) on such issues. Nevertheless, I acknowledging, even if it hasn't felt able to suggest we need to give higher priority to fully support, the critical Pacific Island decolonisation in the Pacific Islands region. concerns over climate change and rising ocean levels. • New Zealand's constitutional relationships with the Cook Islands and • Climate refugees: Obviously the old Niue: These also need close attention. The Refugee Convention, at least in its present concept of self-government in free form, is of no help to climate refugees. But association with New Zealand was a clever I suggest it's time that New Zealand made it and brave experiment. It was recognised at clear, hopefully formally and the time it was devised that there would be unequivocally, that genuine refugees from problems to be worked through. So far, they ocean level changes could, as a matter of have been. But a new development today is last resort, make a home in this country. I that the Cook Islands and to a lesser degree, believe there's little point in waiting for any Niue, are, with New Zealand's concurrence, kind of global agreement on the subject. Of recognised by a number of states, the course, very many of those affected by United States, China and Japan among climate change will want to pursue other them. In that regard they have the attributes options, and supporting them would be a of sovereign states. But when, quite sensible focus for NZ aid. But with, if all recently, the Prime Minister of the Cook else fails, an open door for Pacific island Islands said that he wanted to discuss with climate refugees. (Proportionately the New Zealand's Prime Minister the challenge for us would be much smaller and 3 of 4 possibility of the Cook Islands joining the "New Zealand has, through the Treaty United Nations, the idea was rejected of Waitangi process, placed publicly even before any discussion had reconciliation at the heart of our taken place. I suggest that the "free democracy in a way that the other association" relationship requires more than English-speaking democracies have that. not. That process presents a national challenge and it is often controversial, And there's an additional and, I suggest, but it must influence the conduct of powerful reason for New Zealand to lift its New Zealand's foreign relations." diplomacy in the Pacific. From my own [Terence O'Brien, NZIR, Nov/Dec experience, having been off and on in Pacific 1914] Island countries for more than half a century, I believe that today there's a new confidence on the part of leaders, in government and elsewhere. It's evident in several areas, two of which were evident at the Apia conference which I've mentioned earlier. First, in relation to China, it was fascinating to hear Pacific Island politicians, officials and academics demonstrating their confidence in their own ability to deal with China and its government.
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