New Zealand Foreign Policy: A Small State in an Era of Global Competition

The article is devoted to the foreign policy of New Zealand in the context of the world order transformation and the growth of interstate competition in the Asia-Pacific region. Methodology is based on the interparadigm theory of small countries. A hypothesis is that NZ is a small state with a corresponding foreign policy. The author studies the approaches of researchers to the conceptualization of a ‘small country’, gave the main quantitative and qualitative criteria for classifying these countries, as well as the features of their foreign policy behavior. The differences between paradigmatic approaches are analyzed and substantiated, a three-level model for classifying countries is proposed. The empirical basis is the quantitative parameters of NZ's foreign policy potential, such as GDP, place in international rankings, defence spending and others, as well as qualitative ones, the place of NZ in the world economy, its participation in multilateral trade and economic structures. There are three levels of the foreign policy of this country. At the global level, NZ has little potential for influence, supports multilateralism, a rule-based world order, and uses primarily value-based, ideological, normative, trade and economic instruments. In Indo-Pacific, this country is a more visible player, striving to build up trade and economic ties, avoid conflicts and maintain equidistance from leading actors. In South Pacific region, NZ takes an active and proactive position, perceiving the region as a buffer zone between it and the Asia-Pacific with its great power competition. Thus, according to its main parameters, NZ corresponds to a small state. This implies the limited nature of its foreign policy potential and the desire to balance and join leading actors. Currently, in the context of the transformation of the world order, NZ is increasingly moving closer to the U.S. and its allies on an anti-Chinese basis, as a consequence of the securitization of China’s policy in the South Pacific region. At the same time, there is a limit to such rapprochement, determined by the country’s place in the structure of the global economy and international relations, deep economic ties with China, low defence potential, and the positions of NZ political elites.