New Zealanders need to play a more active role in international affairs, and should not simply despair when faced with ''appalling human suffering'' in this country and elsewhere.
University of Otago international relations specialist Prof Robert Patman was speaking yesterday to about 300 graduates in arts, music and theology, at a 1pm university graduation ceremony in the Dunedin Town Hall.
Prof Patman noted New Zealand had recently ''resoundingly'' won a seat on the United Nations Security Council after ''campaigning as a voice for smaller countries and pledging to reinvigorate this necessary but imperfect institution''.
This was a ''welcome development'' but New Zealand, and other small and medium-sized countries, still faced the challenge of taking a more active international role.
Relying on the great powers alone to solve the world's problems would no longer work because they were not willing or able to ''perform the role they once did''.
But we should not respond with ''defeatism and despair'' to the ''appalling human suffering'' in New Zealand and abroad.
In a lively and wide-ranging address, Prof Patman highlighted the ''transformative power of education'' and said this ultimately held the key to ''countering the darker aspects of globalisation''.
And graduates had a big role to play in future in ''helping to improve the lives of others''.
Over the past three decades, globalisation had ''radically'' changed the structure of the international system.
Globalisation involved the ''intensification of technologically driven links between societies, institutions, cultures and individuals'' throughout the world.
New Zealand had taken up some positive opportunities in the new era, including by building new links with the Asia-Pacific.
But, reflecting the dark side of globalisation, in a world of 7.3 billion people, 900 million did not have enough to eat.
And 85 of the world's richest people owned the same amount of wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest, which was ''close to half of the world's population''.
New Zealand itself had experienced a sharp rise in income inequality, reduced access to affordable housing, and rising costs in the provision of education and welfare support, he said.
An educationist, Barbara Benson, who is a former associate dean at the Otago University College of Education, urged about 240 graduates, including in law and education, at a second graduation ceremony, at 4pm, to maintain their values and ethics and not to ''do anything that will bring shame to your profession or yourself''.
There was stiff competition for teaching jobs, with recent instances of 100 applicants seeking one position. This was a ''difficult time'' for the economy and employment, and teacher graduates should take a job offer if they received it.
Ms Benson also urged graduates to work collaboratively and highlighted the value of volunteering to help community groups.
