When a local political commentator recently suggested (partly tongue-in-cheek) that New Zealand might respond to US President Donald Trump’s new world order by becoming the seventh state of Australia, it was dismissed by the prime minister and most political leaders.
But the fact their views were even sought shows how far the debate has moved since Trump began dismantling the old rules-based international order New Zealand has long considered the basis of its foreign policy.
At January’s World Economic Forum in Davos and more recently in his address to the Australian parliament, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid down a challenge for other “middle powers” to start finding practical solutions to the new global realities.
