The aim of this book is to provide the reader with an overview of New Zealand's international relations. It is a country that has often shown an international presence that is out of proportion to the modest spectrum of national economic, military and diplomatic capabilities at its disposal.In this volume, the editors have called upon a range of specialists representing a range of views drawn from the worlds of academia, policy-making, and civil society. It is an attempt to present a rounded picture of New Zealand's place in the world, one that does not rely exclusively on any particular perspective. The book does not claim to be exhaustive. But it does seek to present a more wide-ranging treatment of New Zealand's foreign relations than has generally been the case in the past.Five broad themes help shape and organize the contributions to the text:

Since 1943, during war, humanitarian and natural disasters, and flashpoints of global tension, one government department has been charged with the critical role of representing New Zealand's interests overseas. In doing so, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (and its predecessors) has needed to respond to ever-evolving political and military allegiances, trade globalization, economic threats, natural disasters, and military conflict on behalf of a small nation that seeks to engage on the global stage while maintaining the principles that underpin its political institutions. For more than 75 years the ministry has been served by some remarkable people, dedicated to an organization that has reflected New Zealand's developing sense of nationhood and place in world. This history of the foreign service, edited by one of New Zealand's foremost historians, captures the high stakes, skill, and intelligence involved in the development of a unique organization.

This history is an account of Southeast Asia-New Zealand relations as they have emerged since the end of World War II. Drawing together the most prominent scholars of New Zealand’s relations with Southeast Asia, this study examines the overall military, multilateral, and commercial relationships and those that assess individual bilateral relationships and diplomatic controversies. Southeast Asia remains a regions of considerable importance for New Zealand, and has remained so through the course of decolonization, internal instability, external security, Cold War tensions, peacekeeping efforts, rapidly expanding economic growth (and crisis), and, increasingly, transitional security challenges such as terrorism.

Starting with the first Indochina War in the 1950s, this historical analysis covers the story of New Zealand's relations with Vietnam up to the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Exploring the diplomatic history of the engagement, which is not well known or understood, and showing that New Zealand officials and politicians in fact entered the war with extreme reluctance, this describes how the dispatch of troops to Vietnam divided the country, enraged a generation, and forced the government to publicly defend its policy. Readers quickly discover that the fallout from the Vietnam conflict still affects New Zealand's position today—from its well-known antinuclear stance to its position over the recent Iraq conflict.