By Jeremy Todd
With a seat on the UN Security Council, New Zealand will need to find its voice on foreign policy.
After an almost decade-long campaign spanning two governments, New Zealand has secured a seat at the UN’s top table. While the victory owes in part to a no-confidence vote in Turkey, the campaign’s success appears to lend credence to the popular New Zealand national self-image of an innovative country that has a reputation for being a good international citizen.
Unable to throw around a large development budget, New Zealand has had to be creative with its campaign, which has involved everything from building an iPhone app version of the UN Handbook to hosting a cricket game on the UN lawn for South Asian and Caribbean dignitaries. The campaign has demonstrated New Zealand’s impressive ability to market itself internationally and the win is a testament to the ability of small states to harness the soft power of attraction to secure gains in the international system.
But while the seat gives New Zealand an opportunity to effect positive change and engage with the big players, it will also present a challenge to the pragmatic and discreet style of diplomacy fashioned by the Key government by putting New Zealand’s foreign policy under a new level of scrutiny both at home and abroad.
Read the full story at The Diplomat