The NZIIA Auckland Branch and The Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic Hub for Shared Security Challenges invite you to a lecture by Dr Reuben Steff. 

New Zealand is out of runway, drawn into a "Second Cold War" driven by a hardening Eurasian entente (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea), shifting Pacific dynamics, and recalibrated Western alliances. The nation faces three compounding strategic problems:

• Digital Frontier: Accelerating AI and advanced technologies are dissolving geographical distance, leaving an industrial-age Cabinet struggling in an age of intelligence.
• Defence Deficit: Decades of underinvestment collide with an urgent multi-billion-dollar Defence Force rebuild, frigate decisions, and deepening alignment with Australia, the US and Japan alongside growing cooperation with NATO partners facing shared global risks.
• Home Front: Stagnant productivity, a domestic brain drain, and limited material resilience severely constrain what national strategy can achieve.

With November’s election looming, the next government will inherit all three fronts, but choosing well can still secure advantages in space, autonomy, and sovereign data.