2019
Prof. Gill on US-China Rivalry
28 November 2019
CSS hosted a public lecture, 'Intensifying Strategic Competition: The new normal for US-China relations and what it means for the rest of us' by Professor Bates Gill.
CSS hosts roundtable led by H.E. Bambang Soesatyo
9 November 2019
The free-wheeling discussion on contemporary Indonesian politics, featured a group of Indonesian parliamentarians led by the Speaker of the People’s Representative Council, H.E. Bambang Soesatyo.
Prof. Rob Rabel appointed as Visiting Prof. at the University of Warsaw
5 November 2019
Emeritus Professor Rob Rabel, the CSS Professorial Fellow, has been selected to be a Visiting Professor at the University of Warsaw in Poland from February to May 2020. While there, he will teach two courses on the changing geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific. He will also seek to advance research collaboration between the Centre for Strategic Studies and the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, building on an Academic Cooperation Agreement signed in 2018.
MFAT marks 75th anniversary with conference co-organised by CSS
18 October 2019
The Centre for Strategic Studies and the New Zealand Institute for International Affairs co-organised a conference to mark the 75th anniversary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the Pipitea Marae on 18 October. More than 340 people attended the day-long event, including the diplomatic corps, many former ministers and ambassadors. Highlights included an address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Winston Peters and a panel featuring two former prime ministers Helen Clark and Jim Bolger.
'The rules based order has already passed.'
2 September 2019
Prof. Hugh White discussed the historic challenges facing Australia and New Zealand in the way they each approach their security in the face of major-power rivalries in Asia.
CSS co-hosts historical presentation to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II
27 August 2019
Complementing its usual focus on contemporary strategic affairs, the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) co-hosted a well-attended historical presentation on 27 August 2019 to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. At the invitation of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Wellington, the Centre partnered with the Embassy, the New Zealand Holocaust Centre and the University’s History Programme to ensure that this significant anniversary of such a pivotal moment in twentieth-century global history did not go unmarked in New Zealand.
Centre for Strategic Studies hosts NATO Secretary-General
5 August 2019
On 5 August, the Centre for Strategic Studies hosted one of the few public addresses ever in New Zealand by a Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Mr Jens Stoltenberg, who is a former Prime Minister of Norway, engaged in discussion on a wide range of security issues with students, academic staff, diplomats and others who filled the Hunter Council Chamber. He was accompanied on his visit by New Zealand’s Ambassador to NATO, David Taylor.
CSS Roundtable with IFES highlights the increasingly sophisticated use of “lawfare”
8 August 2019
A visit to Wellington on 8 August 2019 by representatives from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) created the opportunity for a lively roundtable discussion at the Centre for Strategic Studies on “Democracy Under Siege”. IFES President Tony Banbury outlined the growing range of challenges facing democracy globally, with a specific focus on digital threats. Vasu Mohan, the organisation’s Regional Director for Asia-Pacific explained how disinformation and hate speech were coming together in insidious ways to undermine civility in political discourse in both mature and emerging democracies. Katherine Ellena, who is the IFES Senior Global Legal Advisor and a former New Zealand diplomat, highlighted the increasingly sophisticated use of “lawfare” to manipulate electoral systems and processes.
Kippenberger Chair Dr Sheila Smith’s lecture evaluates Japan's strategic choice of limited capabilities
1 August 2019
In her final public lecture, Kippenberger Chair Dr Sheila Smith In her lecture, Dr. Sheila Smith discussed the future of the US-Japan alliance, as Tokyo seeks to cope with a rising China, a nuclear-armed North Korea and an unpredictable US administration.
A China chip on New Zealand’s shoulder?
16 Jan 2019
Professor Robert Ayson has argued in a commentary for the Interpreter that one of Jacinda Ardern’s challenges for 2019 is to reinstate China’s importance as a bilateral and multilateral trade partner and to find some room for Beijing in New Zealand’s evolving conception of the international order.