23 July 2013

Hiroshima Day Public Debate—That New Zealand is safer out of ANZUS and nuclear free

Since 1985, New Zealand has been nuclear free and out of ANZUS. Has this made us more or less safe and given us a more independent foreign policy?

New Zealand has a long history of opposing nuclear power, nuclear weapons and in 1987, declared itself “nuclear free.” In June that year, New Zealand passed a legislation banning all nuclear powered and armed ships from entering New Zealand ports. This followed years of individual and collective protest against nuclear testing and nuclear deterrent strategies. This policy initially opposed by the National Party was adopted by it in the 1990 election campaign, thereby making it a bipartisan element of New Zealand’s defence policy. The cost of this policy was exclusion from the Ministerial Council meetings of the ANZUS alliance, the end of joint military exercises and the suspension of direct intelligence ties. New Zealand was relegated from close ally to friend of the United States.

Those who oppose the nuclear free legislation argue that these punishments have damaged New Zealand’s international reputation and reduced its influence in Washington and other Western Capitals. They feel that New Zealand has abandoned its traditional allegiance to the West and its “enlightenment” interests and has become preoccupied with a narrow range of political interests in the South West Pacific. They still hanker for full Alliance membership and a resumption of New Zealand’s seat at “the top table” in Washington and London.

The public debate on August 6 will feature Kevin Clements, the Director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, and Gerald Hensley, a former New Zealand diplomat who served under Rob Muldoon and David Lange as Head of the Prime Minister's department.

Professor Clements will argue that New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy of the 1980s was a rational response to a world of rising nuclear threat, and that although New Zealanders wished to be nuclear free, they also wished to remain within the Alliance. This was not possible because of the United States insistence on its Neither Confirm nor Deny Policy. Professor Clements will argue for the maintenance of NZ as a nuclear weapons-free zone, and highlight ways in which New Zealand can continue to push for the control and abolition of nuclear weapons globally. “This debate has more than passing historic interest,” Professor Clements said “ it is about what small states can do to influence the nuclear and other decisions of the P5 and it is about the heart and soul of New Zealand Defence and Foreign Policy into the 21st century.”

Mr Hensley, who recently published Friendly Fire: Nuclear Politics and the Collapse of ANZUS, 1984-1987, will make an argument for prudent support of extended nuclear deterrence and a reconnection with what could be called the unfinished “Western Project.” It is expected that he will argue that NZ is safer within ANZUS and should therefore moderate its nuclear free policy to enable a full resumption of alliance ties with the United States.

Place: Otago University, Archway 3 Lecture Theatre

Time: August 6 (Tue) 5:15pm

A Peace Vigil Ceremony to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will also take place on August 6 at the Peace Pole in front of the Otago Museum at 11 am. The ceremony will begin with the performance of the Dunedin O-Taiko Drummers followed by silent prayers at the moment the bombs were dropped (8:15am in Hiroshima, 11:15 in NZ).

ENDS

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