About the event

The NZIIA warmly invites you to the Christchurch book launch of Against the Tide: Aotearoa New Zealand in World Affairs Volume V 2006-2025. The event features presentations, discussion and Q&A from the book’s editors and several of the expert contributors, including

• Robert G. Patman
• Bethan Greener
• Carrie Stoddart-Smith
• Serena Kelly

There will be an informal networking opportunity over drinks and snacks at the event. 

Copies of the book are available to purchase at the event, and online here.

The fifth volume in a series going back to 1945, Against the Tide questions the narrative that we live in a uniquely troubled world, and sets the mid-2020s against the longer arc of New Zealand’s engagement in world affairs. Through thematic chapters spanning two decades, the contributors illuminate what is new and what is long running, and what choices New Zealand now has as it faces rapid geopolitical, economic, technological and climate shifts. This volume offers essential historical context and practical insights for policymakers, academics, students, and anyone interested in informed public debate.

This is a flagship research publication published by the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs—Whare Tāwāhi-a-mahi i Aotearoa in collaboration with Te Herenga Waka University Press.

Edited by Hamish McDougall, Serena Kelly and Mathew Doidge, contributors include Vanessa Bramwell, Robert Broughton, Shine Choi, Christian Dietrich, Sir Peter Gluckman, Catherine Grant Makokera, Bethan Greener, Rhieve Grey (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa), Stephanie Honey, Colin Keating, Jason Paul Mika (Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Kahungunu), Mia Mikic, Robert G. Patman, Hema Sridhar, Carrie Stoddart-Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua) and Annie Te One (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Mutunga).

About the speakers

Robert G Patman is a professor of International Relations and an Inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair (2019) at the University of Otago. He is former Head of the Department of Politics. He is also the author or editor of 14 scholarly books. He is a Fulbright Senior Scholar and Honorary Professor to the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College, Trentham, and provides regular contributions to the national and international media on global issues and events.

Bethan Greener is Head of the School of People, Environment and Planning and Professor of International Relations at Massey University. Her research focuses on how states and others seek to provide security and what this means for world order, and New Zealand foreign and defence policy. This has resulted in books on international policing (2009), police and military roles in peace and stability operations (2014, co-authored with Will Fish) and an edited collection on the New Zealand Army (2017).

Carrie Stoddart-Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua) is the Founder of OpinioNative and a PhD candidate at Waikato Management School. She is a recognised leader in Indigenous trade, and has advised Ministers, global institutions, and trade bodies, including the World Economic Forum, OECD, World Bank and APEC, on Indigenous trade strategy.

Serena Kelly is a senior lecturer above bar in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Canterbury. Her research includes international political communication, European Union diplomacy, and relations, presence and impact in, and with, the Asia-Pacific. Serena is national Chair of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, was Chair of the NZIIA Christchurch branch from 2017 to 2021 and is also Vice -President of the European Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand.