New Zealand's Strategic Options in the Asian Century: an Australian View

New Zealand's Defence White Paper 2010 acknowledges that shifting power relativities in Asia are undermining the regional order that has kept New Zealand secure for many decades. This raises questions about whether New Zealand can continue to assume that the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) need not prepare for major conflict. The White Paper provides little analysis of what this possibility means for the kinds of tasks the NZDF might be called upon to perform and what capabilities it might therefore need in future. This article explores these questions by looking at the kinds of broad strategic posture New Zealand might adopt in a more contested Asia, what demands those postures might make on its forces, and the capability implications.