As part of the University of Otago’s 60th annual Foreign Policy School, the policy specialists would look at how the rules-based order had eroded since the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and subsequent full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the United States/Israeli war against Iran this year.
School co-director Prof Robert Patman said the world had also recently witnessed the rise of right-wing populist leaders in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Hungary, which had also served to diminish support within these countries for an international rules-based order.
These international and national challenges had morphed together to create a combined threat, he said.
‘‘Opponents of the rules-based order have sought, particularly in the social media space, to influence the political direction of states that have traditionally supported this order.’’
He said New Zealand could not be ‘‘indifferent’’ to these trends, and the nation had a vital stake in how the world responded to the numerous global pressures and challenges.
Prof Patman said international relations lecturer Arnold Entwisle directed the first Otago Foreign Policy School in 1966, and the vision that inspired that first event remained as relevant today as it was then.
‘‘In his opening address to the inaugural school in 1966, Mr Entwisle said there was an urgent need for a ‘do-it-yourself kit’ in the area of New Zealand foreign policy making.’’
For many decades, New Zealand governments championed the vision of a rules-based international order and the norm of multilateral diplomacy.
However, these foundational principles now seemed to be threatened by growing lawlessness in the international arena, Prof Patman said.
‘‘Like most small and middle powers, New Zealand has a vital stake in ensuring that its security and economic well-being are not dictated by the unrestrained exercise of raw power.’’
Speakers at the school would include Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council security studies and global outreach director Dr Hanna Shelest, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg) research fellow Dr Malcolm Jorgensen, Peking University School of International Studies diplomacy chair Prof Zhang Qingmin, University of Exeter political scientist Prof Ilan Pappe, and Denison University economist Associate Prof Fadhel Kaboub.
Delegates would consider the rules-based order through the lens of five related themes — liberal institutions and multilateralism: theoretical and empirical perspectives; free trade, sovereignty, big tech, and democratic governance; upholding rules in an insecure and unjust world; alternative approaches to an international rules-based order; and New Zealand and an international rules-based order under strain.
