NZIIA Event held in Wellington on 7 August 2024. 

In essence, Australia’s commitment to AUKUS is a vote to help preserve Asia’s US-led unipolar strategic order. But what are the alternatives?  What kinds of new regional order might emerge to take the old order’s place if it cannot be preserved?  And how would we fare in them?

Professor Hugh White’s presentation explores these questions, looking at the global context as shaped by the war in Ukraine and the alignment between China and Russia. It asks if the global Rules Based Order fails, what will take its place – authoritarian hegemony or politically diverse multipolarity? And what would it mean for Asia, and more particularly for Australia and New Zealand?

Professor White’s address is followed by additional expert discussion from John McKinnon, Chair of the New Zealand-China Council and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.

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