About the event

The NZIIA warmly invites you to the Wellington 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

• Mathew Doidge
• Sir Peter Gluckman
• Catherine Grant Makokera
• Bethan Greener
• Colin Keating
• Serena Kelly
• Hamish McDougall
• Robert G. Patman

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

Discounted 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

Mathew Doidge is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury’s National Centre for Research on Europe. His research interests include European Union external relations, regionalism and inter-regionalism, development policy, and Europe-Asia relations. He has taught at universities in Germany, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He is Editor of New Zealand International Review, on the Executive Committee of the European Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ESAANZ) and Editor-in-Chief of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of European Studies.

Sir Peter Gluckman is President of the International Science Council, Director of Koi Tū: Centre for Informed Futures and a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the University of Auckland. He was Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand (2009–2018) and science envoy for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2012–2018). Amongst international awards he received the American Association for Advancement of Sciences Science Diplomacy award in 2016.

Catherine Grant Makokera is Executive Director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. She is an experienced trade negotiator and trade policy expert, having worked in the public, private, and academic sectors. She has represented New Zealand at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. She is also a Research Associate of the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland.

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).

Colin Keating is a former diplomat and international lawyer. He was New Zealand Ambassador to the UN and the Security Council. He founded the organisation ‘Security Council Report’ in New York and is a leading authority on the Council. He was Special Envoy for the Prime Minister and Advisor to the Government of New Zealand’s 2015-2016 UN Security Council term.

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.

Hamish McDougall was Executive Director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs during the creation of this book. He is an international historian of the Cold War, decolonisation and New Zealand’s foreign and trade policies. He has authored a book, articles, and an award-winning Doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on New Zealand’s external relations in the 20th century. In 2026 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University in Washington DC, where he is researching an international history of Nuclear-Free New Zealand. He is also a Research Associate at the Public Policy Institute, University of Auckland.

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.