Aotearoa New Zealand and the Quasi-Populist Foreign Policy of New Zealand First

Abstract

In their introduction to this edited volume, Wajner and Giurlando (2023) have rightly signalled that the nature and scope of foreign policy can depend on structural variables such as geographic and population size, location, economic and military power, and other factors. This is certainly true of NZ. In every sense of the term, this is a small state, in terms of population (just over 5 million in 2022 or 125th in the world), geographic size 264,537 sq. km (77th in the world), and Real GDP (purchasing power parity) $215.6 billion (2020 est.) which is 65th between Kenya and Kuwait (Central Intelligence Agency, 2022). While it is highly vulnerable to regional and global economic changes (Brady, 2020), it is geographically isolated and insulated from many of the dangers of the surrounding world. It has the virtues of being one of the world’s least corrupt countries, with a well-functioning liberal democracy, a relatively strong social safety net, and a vibrant civil society. Its maritime estate (its territorial ocean size) is the fifth largest in the world, and it has sufficient arable land to sustain 90 million people (Brady, 2019, p. 2). Foreign policy in NZ is centralized and largely controlled by the Prime Minister. Certainly, Foreign Ministers can place their own stamp on the tone and character of policy, but they are very much sandwiched between the PM and the entrenched bureaucracy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), where approximately 1800 people conduct most of the day-to-day diplomacy with state and non-state actors.