New Zealand: Independent nation or acquiescent ally?

Abstract

New Zealand is a small nation of predominantly Anglo-Saxon culture situated in a corner of the earth far distant from the land of its cultural forbears. Despite its distance from the centres of power during its relatively short life, New Zealand has been associated with the two greatest powers in the world in the past century and a half - first Britain, and during the latter half of the 20th century with the United States of America. With this strong association has gone the reflected glory of power and prestige that a great nation enjoys. New Zealanders have in the past felt that Britain’s glory was their own, and justifiably so, as they had contributed both economically and with military manpower to the maintenance of that power. In recent years, New Zealand has had to face the hard fact that Britain is no longer the power that she was. She can now only be classed as a middle-range power along with several others. And although New Zealand continues to be associated with one of the world’s two greatest powers at this time, the United States, the indications are that she also faces a diminishing relative power combined with a reluctance or inability to effectively use the power that she enjoys to maintain her position. New Zealand's emotional and cultural ties with America have never been as strong as with Britain - in fact there has probably always been a residue of anti-American feeling which arises largely out of the Americans’ boastfulness of their wealth, power and right to rule.