New Zealand’s Global Responsibility

New Zealand often plays leading roles in implementing progressive ideas. This book investigates what explanatory factors facilitated the country to become such a relevant normative actor. New Zealand’s case suggests that democratic institutions, skilled bureaucracy, and ambitious politicians play the crucial roles to create global influence. The case studies included in this book develop the argument that small states can better influence international politics by focusing on domestic issues. In contributing to discourses on New Zealand’s possible future role, the book is an invaluable resource to intellectuals, researchers, and students alike.

• Constructivist account on New Zealand’s foreign policy
• New Zealand’s foreign policy
• Small states’ foreign policy options
• New Zealand as international thought leader
• New Zealand as norm setter
• New Zealand as norm entrepreneur
• Soft power and power over opinion
• New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy
• New Zealand’s trade policy
• Biculturalism in New Zealand
• Sensitivity to Equality in New Zealand
• Kiwi Ingenuity
• Mission conscience of New Zealand’s political leaders

"László Szöllősi-Cira has written a provocative and timely book. At a time when obsessions about great power conflict dominate International Relations scholarship, Szöllősi-Cira reminds us that smaller powers still have a (sometimes influential) role to play in international politics. Szöllősi-Cira skilfully examines the peculiarities and eccentricities of New Zealand’s foreign policymaking and shows how this relatively small and distant country has managed to remain not only independent but influential. Such insights help contextualize New Zealand’s current foreign policymaking in the face of growing Sino-American competition, making this book an urgent must-read. "    

—Nicholas Ross Smith, Assistant Professor, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China

“In New Zealand’s Global Responsibility, László Szöllősi-Cira makes the crucial but often overlooked point that New Zealand’s experience challenges the realist assumption that small states are destined to be marginal actors in international relations. Drawing on specific examples concerning the fourth Labour government’s non-nuclear stance and the embrace of trade liberalization in the mid-1980s, this book demonstrates that it is entirely possible for a relatively small state like New Zealand to become a norm setter and ideas entrepreneur in an increasingly interconnected world. This book should be read by both policy-makers and serious students of world affairs.”

—Robert G. Patman, Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair and Professor of International Relations, University of Otago, New Zealand

• Dunedin, New Zealand

  László Szöllősi-Cira

László Szöllősi-Cira holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Otago. His academic interests include political theory and political economy. 

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