Making sense of the Ardern Government’s foreign policy paradoxes

The conspicuous public debate currently underway about New Zealand foreign policy makes it a valuable time to appraise that of the Jacinda Ardern Government, 2017–2023. This appraisal prompts several questions addressed in New Zealand’s Foreign Policy under the Jacinda Ardern Government, including whether that Government’s foreign policy is best characterised by change or continuity; whether it proactively asserted its own values and strategies or was subsumed by major unforeseen events such as COVID-19 and the Christchurch mosque shootings; and the effect its responses to these events had on New Zealand’s external relations. The answers to these questions are complex, with contradictory evidence and several apparent paradoxes. The article concludes by suggesting the importance of nuance in assessing the foreign policy of the Ardern Government; understanding historical context and using wider timeframes; the need to eschew overly polarised characterisation; and a requirement to evaluate both the negative and positive effects that major unforeseen events and crises have had on foreign policy. More nuanced assessments can assist the New Zealand Government’s policy responses to strategic competition, particularly between the US and China, and prepare for future disruptive events that have significant international aspects, including those requiring rapid foreign policy formulation.