ABSTRACT
As an isolated, trading nation with a small population, New Zealand has a strong interest in the strategic challenges and threats emerging in and from its vast maritime domain. These include the challenges of climate change, transnational crime (in particular seaborne drug trafficking), resource pressures, and, more recently, the growing presence of the People's Republic of China in the South Pacific. This growing interest has been reflected in a number of policy statements and a new approach to coordinating maritime security across government. The 2018 Strategic Defence Policy Statement elevated the importance of the South Pacific and the Southern Oceans in defence planning. The country issued its first Maritime Security Strategy in 2020, which noted the existing approach was being stressed by growing challenges from climate change, technological developments, and what it called ‘a more complex geopolitical environment’. A feature of recent government statements is growing attention to grey zone challenges, with the 2021 Defence Assessment referencing the potential for military or paramilitary backed resource exploitation in the Pacific. While there has been work to ensure New Zealand's response to these challenges is coordinated across government, a bigger problem is a lack of capacity, with the already small New Zealand defence force confronting the looming obsolescence of naval platforms.
