Tapping The Exogenous Growth Potential Of New Zealand - A Proactive Foreign Policy

In the face of the global reshuffling, New Zealand should not only consider the corresponding policy responses domestically, but also actively create a favourable development environment externally, to promote a new global partnership network after the pandemic. Several foreign policy advices are proposed to cope with the upcoming great power competition and changes of international pattern in the post-pandemic era.

Firstly, strengthen coordination and cooperation among major countries. New Zealand should call on big powers to play an exemplary role, take the lead in implementing the UN Charter, providing global public goods and contributing to world peace and development. At a time when the world is facing major risks and challenges, it is more important for great powers to bear in mind the future and destiny of mankind, abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias. It is evident that the greater the degree of openness, the greater the dependence on international markets and the concern for security follows. Yet the truth is security threat comes from monopoly rather than openness. What we need is to pay attention to economic security while avoiding the "paradox of decoupling". The idea of decoupling is not relevant to New Zealand for now and in the short term, but it is a warning to New Zealand about the future. In the foreseeable future, New Zealand needs to allocate more resources to technological innovation, improve its industrial structure and ensure the safety of its industrial chain. For high-tech fields that are easy to be contained, independent R&D and independent innovation capabilities should be attached importance to. Only by objectively planning the industrial layout and ensuring balanced development can New Zealand avoid the hollowing-out of some industries caused by industrial transfer. On the other hand, it is necessary to avoid the "paradox of decoupling", that is, in the case of insufficient information and lack of mutual trust, each country should shrink the value chain to its own country, which will harm the scale effect and specialization effect generated by the global market created by economic globalization. This will be detrimental to the economic growth and technological progress of each country. In the field of new technologies and artificial intelligence, only through international cooperation can we overcome technological difficulties, meet new security challenges and share prosperity. Great powers are so interdependent that no one can accept the consequence of violent conflicts. Economic and trade links, as the "ballast" for peace and stability, are the basis for consolidating the stability of the international order and serve the economic and political interests of all countries in the world.

Secondly, advocate to give full play to the central role of the United Nations. As the most universal, representative, and authoritative international organization, the UN has more qualifications and advantages to play a leading role than other countries and international institutions. New Zealand should participate in global governance in a rational and pragmatic way and guard against the "instrumentalized" multilateralism of a few countries. At a time when the global governance deficit is exacerbating, New Zealand, as a member state, should continue to actively participate in global governance and provide public goods in a down-to-earth manner according to its own capacity and national interests and the demand intensity of the international community. The public goods of global governance cannot be undertaken by any one country alone. It can be predicted that once the Biden administration adopts the multilateral path and uniting allies to put pressure on China as estimated by all parties, China will respond strongly and participate more actively in international affairs, then the external environment for New Zealand's participation in global governance will change accordingly. New Zealand will inevitably be forced by the situation to make some choices on certain topics, however reluctantly, rather than stay out of them. New Zealand should stick to one goal of participating in global governance, which is to support a stable global governance order and promote the reform of the global governance system towards a more open and inclusive direction. New Zealand needs to be wary of the "instrumentalization" of multilateralism and international rules by some countries. In the midst of world recovery, China is rebounding rapidly and will be more capable of fighting for more interests for developing countries in the near future. The "neutral improvement" of global governance is the trend of the times. To lead or participate in the reversal will bring costs. Therefore, in the reform of global governance, New Zealand should emphasize the democratization, neutrality and fairness of the reform process and objectives, which will also enable New Zealand to take the lead in striving for the right to provide reform proposals, reinforce the advantage of institutional discourse right in an earlier stage, and better safeguard its own long-term interests.

Thirdly, uphold the multilateral system, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, speed up the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and inject more impetus into the post-pandemic world economy. New Zealand will take an active part in various forms of regional and global security dialogues, support reform and innovation of multilateral mechanisms, and participate in the formulation of new international rules and norms to address common challenges. Facing the perplexing and bewildering changes of international relations and more drastic all-round competition among great powers, New Zealand should rely on the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and the G20 and other international mechanisms, as well as draw power from some emerging open platforms such as the BRI, Shanghai Import and Export Expo, pilot free trade zones to continuously explore for dialogue, opening to the outside world, expand new modes of cooperation. This is not only for improving internal strength and connecting with high-quality global resources, but also a window for New Zealand to switch to new growth drivers and provide new opportunities for domestic development. Furthermore, with the increasing number of global issues, there are fewer and fewer enemies and partners in all directions. Instead, countries choose to resort to cooperation or conflict based on their perceived stakes in different areas. To promote functional cooperation is to form a pseudo-alliance between countries to address common challenges in a certain field. Such cooperation approach breaks down the clear-cut development differences between North and South. With the return of the Establishment of America, New Zealand should not only maintain communication with the traditional allies of the United States, but also carry out dialogue and cooperation with emerging market and developing countries, and carry out practical cooperation in different fields by promoting cooperation in functional fields to defuse external strategic pressure.

Fourthly, New Zealand will properly handle the interaction between international affairs and domestic governance. The US diplomacy in the Trump era was to internationalize its domestic problems and overflow its economic and social problems to the diplomatic level. Issues such as ethnic division and widening income gap have cultivated the soil for populism and isolationism. Although two-level game between the international and domestic dynamics involved in the behaviour mechanism and influential variables are very complex, increasingly frequent interaction between domestic politics and international politics makes it impossible to ignore the consequences of the bidirectional interaction on the global governance when judging the tendency of global order. In particular, the experience of other countries in fighting the pandemic has shown New Zealand that in the face of global governance changes and growing uncertainties and risks, only by maintaining strategic focus, doing our own thing well and improving national governance capacity can we respond to changes with constancy.

Lastly, public health and climate change should be placed more prominently on the international agenda to address both traditional and non-traditional security threats in a coordinated manner. Scientific and technological innovation is an important driving force for tackling the pandemic and achieving economic recovery and sustainable development. New Zealand should call on all parties to share the opportunities of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation and take advantage of the new business forms and models spawned by the pandemic to achieve high-quality development and "green recovery". Moreover, in 2021, cyber security, 5G, space, deep sea, polar regions, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will become new tongs and battlefields of great power game. New Zealand should uphold international law and order. New Zealand will abide by the basic norms governing international relations, such as sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs and peaceful settlement of disputes, and honour commitments we have made. New Zealand should oppose unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction and uphold the authority and sanctity of international law. New Zealand will call on the international community to jointly promote the formulation of rules in emerging fields including deep sea, polar regions, cyberspace, and outer space, so as to ensure that the development of new frontiers is governed by law and benefits all countries equally including ourselves.

Manqing Cheng is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland and visiting researcher, The New Zealand Centre at Peking University.

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