Getting New Zealand beyond the great power game

Two recent Incline contributions have considered how New Zealand should seek to position itself to meet the challenges of, in Hugh White’s words, an increasingly "contested Asia" where, Matt Hill suggests "while we might not be interested in strategic competition, strategic competition is interested in us". In response to this strategic competition Hill suggests that we refresh and upgrade the status quo, with an emphasis on the need to increase our interoperability with Australia, mentions the need to support our other security partners (here I read the US) and calls for upping our naval combat, littoral operations and maritime surveillance capabilities. Hill argues that this needs to be done because “we cannot hope to advance our stake in regional security by being a mute witness on the periphery, nor will we be taken seriously as a partner if we are perceived to free ride on the efforts of others”. He notes an increased willingness by China to risk confrontation, and (in somewhat loaded terms) suggests that the significance of the US’s rebalancing is "under-appreciated" in New Zealand. White’s piece gently chastises Hill. He argues that “prudent strategic policy today must do more than consider how New Zealand can best support America to perpetuate the liberal status quo against China’s challenge”, and that we should be careful not to assume that “supporting US primacy in Asia is the best or only possible option for our future strategic postures”. However, White similarly focuses on New Zealand’s choices in light of the "escalating strategic rivalry" in our region and emphasises that this is an era of highly significant change in the global distribution of wealth and power, the import of which is underestimated by New Zealand (and presumably Australia).  Moreover, despite his critical attention to Hill’s assumption that New Zealand will be best served by doing what it has always done before – that is, joining coalitions of like-minded countries in the defence of liberal Western values – White ultimately falls into the same trap