In Defence of New Zealand: Foreign Policy Choices in the Nuclear Age
A past president of the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs has written a well-balanced and wide-ranging study of the issues behind the current dispute between the United States and New Zealand over nuclear ship visits. There are solid chapters on the ANZUS alliance, the prospect for New Zealand's pursuing a policy of nonalignment or neutrality, and the various proposals for nuclear-free zones in the Pacific. Both the American and the New Zealand cases on port calls are presented fairly. The author concludes that the ANZUS alliance has provided a wide range of unequally beneficial defense activities among Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and that New Zealand has contributed the least and gained the most from these. In the absence of ANZUS, he says, New Zealanders would have to live with a lot less security and a greatly degraded defense preparedness at much increased cost.
Related
America's view of India as a nuclear revisionist state discounts India's many disarmament initiatives and its adherence to basic nonproliferation efforts.
Last year's nuclear tests by both India and Pakistan brought world attention to the decades-old Kashmir conflict. Claimed by both countries, the former princely state has been ravaged by a war that shows no sign of ending. Both rivals have invested heavily in blood and treasure to make Kashmir their own. Now Afghan-trained mujahideen are leading the fight, bringing their own foreign brand of radical Islam. Neither New Delhi nor Islamabad has ever asked what Kashmiris want. They would not like the answer: more than anything else, Kashmiris hope to be left alone.
Just as Asia began asserting itself economically in the 1960s and 1970s, it now does so militarily. The rise of Asian military power ushers in a new age in which Western interference in Asia will prove far more treacherous and costly than ever. For the first time in modern history, Asia has the power to shape its future -- for better or worse.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.