Diplostack #6: We need more global thinkers
"We need people like Terence O’Brien, who think like him, who can see a different tomorrow" -former PM Jim Bolger
Next event: Artificial General Intelligence: Have We Opened Pandora's Box?
Former PM Jim Bolger paid tribute to ambassador, and friend, Terence O’Brien (“O’Brien” hereafter) in a talk at Diplosphere on Wellington on 22 March 2023 in front of 200 members of the public. Bolger was accompanied by four other panelists Michael Powles (former NZ diplomat), Malcom McKinnon (historian), John O’Brien (1st son, and MD Carbon Market Solutions), and Chris Seed (CE, MFAT) at a talk presided by Maty Nikkhou-O’Brien (Diplosphere), and Daniel O’Brien (2nd son, Diplosphere), and attended to by Elizabeth O’Brien - O’Brien’s wife of near sixty years.
Bolger recounted his experiences collaborating with O’Brien in Geneva in the 1980s and New York in the 1990s where O’Brien was ambassador at both posts. In Geneva, Bolger was NZ Minister of Labour, elected president of the International Labour Organisation for a short period. In New York, the then NZ Prime Minister gave a speech at the UN General Assembly. It was at this time Bolger credited O’Brien and his team for brokering the first leader level conversation with the Whitehouse staff, between the President of the US and the NZ PM, after ten frosty years. Supported by his ambassador, PM Bolger met with President GHW Bush on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (the episode recounted in Bolger’s book Fridays with Jim). Relations had broken down after New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy of 1984 under Labour PM Lange, which led to refusal of a port-visit by the USS Buchanan in Feb 1985, given the US Navy’s policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons on board its ships. This led to US suspension of treaty obligations to NZ under the ANZUS security agreement. Later, as PM and National party leader Bolger “bridged the gap” to make NZ’s anti-nuclear position bipartisan foreign policy that has stood the test of time and informs us even today. Bolger strongly questioned the benefits and costs of Australian nuclear submarines under the AUKUS arrangements. Bolger also lamented the lack of global leadership in seeking solutions in Ukraine - and decried the first land war in Europe since 1945. Bolger referred to O’Brien’s book Presence of Mind (2009, NZIIA) and hoped that every MP entering parliament would read it. He ended with a plea for New Zealanders to step up, and be like his friend O’Brien, to think globally, to see further, to look past the impasses of today with a resounding appeal:
“We can’t force anybody to do anything, we are too small, we don’t have the power, we don’t have the money, we don’t have any of that. All we can do is lead by intellectual argument, and persuasion, and that we have no limit in doing, and we have the ability to do it. And to challenge New Zealanders to step and not be silent, to speak up, to seek to persuade others they should follow likewise”.
See Bolger and the rest of the panel in full here:
Bolger’s talk was mentioned in an article in the NZ Herald: Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger denounces Aukus nuclear submarines for Australia
Mr O’Brien “wore his stature” lightly. And never short for words, shared his wisdom freely. He was a mentor to many, including me. And before hearing from our distinguished panel, I wanted to touch upon how I benefited from Mr O’Brien’s “sagesse”. This spanned fifteen years -- at Diplosphere and as Executive Director for the NZIIA. Over this time I ran seventy five current affairs events of which Mr O’Brien spoke at eleven, and guided me in dozens of others. His last public talk was at Diplosphere in June 2021. That talk was entitled “New Zealand, Australia & China: A False Choice?” given at the Beehive Theatrette and Mr O’Brien used the theme “all foreign policy starts at home” to survey the topic. The issues were always current.
Maty Nikkhou-O’Brien, Director of Diplosphere
Former diplomat Michael Powles spoke after Bolger, and read an excerpt from a talk given by O’Brien at UN 70th Anniversary: Challenge of Maintaining NZ Influence (2015, Wellington). (link to Jstor requires login)
Equality of responsibility and equivalence of obligation inside the international system are, for great and small countries alike, indispensable to rules based behaviour. The China-US relationship will be a paramount influence on the future. Both countries possess a strong sense of their own ‘exceptionalism’ mandated for each by providence. The US has a well established practice of standing aside from multilateral rules, or from the negotiating process , where it deems these to infringe American sovereignty or interests. That is an example which China may well be disposed to copy. NZ foreign policy interests identify clearly with firm evenhanded disavowal of ‘exceptionalism’ and resistance to any sense that the interests of one great power necessarily or automatically trump the interests of the other. Walking the right lines here is a supreme challenge for NZ external policy unequalled in previous NZ international relations experience.
Next was O’Brien’s first son, John O’Brien, who talked about his father’s values and beliefs, starting with his belief in the power of young people to think differently, and to speak truth to power. The Terence O'Brien Scholarship in International Relations or Strategic Studies is an enduring commitment in this regard. John O’Brien did a tour de force of O’Brien’s views on NZ as a small nation in world affairs, the UN and the need for reform, great power rivalry between the US and China, the complexity and history behind the Russia-Ukraine, and more besides; interspersed with a smattering of humorous anecdotes.
“The best foreign policy decision I ever made”
Former PM Helen Clark on the decision not to join US-led invasion of Iraq without UN backing. Clark solicited O’Brien’s opinion on the eve of the war.
John O’Brien highlighted that O’Brien was not anti-American rather pointed out the importance of consistent application of global rules; O’Brien often pointed to the great debt that the world owed to the US after World War 2 for being the driving force behind the creation of the United Nations. But in our times, O’Brien highlights the hypocrisy of the selective application of international rules, and the precept of “exceptionalism”. On Ukraine, the media story of “good guys vs bad guys” hides the complexity of the issue, and serves not the cause of peace — the issue is not black and white, but grey.
Never afraid to speak his mind, O’Brien would sometimes land himself in hot water by speaking truth to power like when O’Brien criticised the proposition of NZ to buy F-16s in the early 2000s, or when he opposed the Iraq war in 2003 because there was no UN mandate - his opinion solicited by then PM Helen Clarke on the eve of the decision on whether or NZ should join the US-led coalition. On Western military adventurism in the Middle East, O’Brien thought it is self-defeating to think there was no connection between the rise of radical Islam and the failed Western wars to spread democracy to that region. The link between the West’s wars in the Middle East and the rise of radical Islam is hardly discussed, yet. But like so many of O’Brien’s prescient views, is likely to take more hold over time, especially in the “non-West” parts of the world.
O’Brien was a great believer in the UN, and its mission to the rid the world of the scourge of war - but spoke of the need for international institutions to reform. Reform is needed to reflect the realities of the 21st century with its shift of power from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from West to East, from a “Western way” of modernity to diverse ways of modernity. It is New Zealand’s interest to have a global rules-based system that works for all, rather than a selective, or great power system. For as a small nation in a global rules-based system that works, NZ can persuade, argue its point, and make its voice heard. Evenhandedness is an asset.
The fourth speaker was Historian Malcom McKinnon, who knew O’Brien (though not that well) from seminars when O’Brien founded the Centre for Strategic Studies, and was struck by O’Brien’s insightful contributions. McKinnon synthesised three resonating themes from some fifty NZIIA articles by O’Brien, written over fifteen years. The first theme was the significance of the UN, and of multilateralism grounded in the UN, in O’Brien’s mind. This organisation, from its inception in 1945 - with great drive from PM Peter Fraser and his team, was not just a great power organisation but was an organisation for all nations of the world. O’Brien was critical of organisations emerging as “claimants” to the UN mantle like the G20, NATO, and coalitions of the willing (Iraq War 2003). At the same time, O’Brien lamented the anodyne NZ contribution to UN peacekeeping.
The second theme was the importance of NZ engaging directly with rising regions of the world. When O’Brien was gaining his diplomatic spurs in the 1960s and 1970s, these were states that previously NZ had has little to do with - China, but also the Pacific, and others in the then termed “third world” - where NZ had to establish new relationships. These relationships need to be developed and maintained. Much of his writings speak of the Asia-Pacific, but not only China, also ASEAN, Korea and Japan, on their own terms, not through the lens of their alliances with the US. It is clear that it remains as relevant as it was as through the years of these writings, and as a subject goes back to the 1960s and is an ongoing theme to the present and into the future for this country. (foresight)
The third theme is that of the anti-nuclear policy. Though for most New Zealanders at the time (1980s) the movement was much centred around “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY), for O’Brien the policy was strongly about its global ramifications. O’Brien was passionately committed to disarmament and to opposing nuclear proliferation. New Zealand was involved in 1998 the New Agenda Coalition to help advance nuclear disarmament which eventually led to The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, to which NZ is a signatory. For O’Brien, this was not but about NZ identity, but something that was desperately important for the world as a whole - and McKinnon echoed Bolger’s comments that this has never been as pressing as in today’s times. McKinnon concluded his remarks by describing O’Brien as a rich, versatile, and principled thinker which come through in his writings and works.
Last at the lectern was Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade head Chris Seed, who started by thanking O’Brien on behalf of the Ministry for his service and contribution. Though Seed stated differences in (unspecified) geopolitical viewpoints, he was grateful for O’Brien’s encouragement throughout his career. “Thanks for all the help” is O’Brien’s dedication in Seed’s copy of Presence of Mind (penned with irony perhaps, Seed quipped). Seed also lamented O’Brien’s cricketing prowess before stepping through 5 “Ps” to describe O’Brien as: a Practitioner, Purposeful, Pragmatic, a (p)atriot, and Passionate.
As a diplomatic practitioner, O’Brien had a career that encompassed service in the South Pacific, in Asia, in Europe, and in New York across economic security, bilateral, multilateral areas of diplomatic “tradecraft”. The current ministry leadership try to imbue their young officers and new recruits with the same versatility.
O’Brien was purposeful, building “up and out”, as a teacher, lecturer, and commentator. Citing the example of David Capie, who was O’Brien’s first employee at the Centre for Strategic Studies, and more recently appointed professor at Victoria.
O’Brien was pragmatic, not starry-eyed, and recognised the limitations for how a small country like New Zealand is obliged to work in the world. O’Brien’s recommendations and judgements were the better for it. Seed was favourbly struck by O’Brien’s insistence that a highly professional well-equipped Defense Force as an essential asset in NZ’s diplomatic toolkit.
O’Brien was a “small p” patriot, invested as a diplomat, as an academic, as a commentator, and a citizen, in the goal of sustaining and advancing NZ’s interests in the world. Seed mentioned “disagreements on policy” with O’Brien but commended O’Brien’s advocacy of NZ values and interest. These values and interests now infuse NZ’s modern foreign ministry: fair-mindedness, NZ operating in a world without grand design, or coercive power, NZ having a problem-solving mentality, and impartiality. Rather than a weakness, O’Brien helped transform NZ’s very limitation in hard power into an asset in the world.
O’Brien was passionate about New Zealand and multilateralism. After the UK joined the European Common Market in 1973 and the Common Agriculture Policy which effectively excluded outside producers including NZ, O’Brien helped the NZ foreign service gain in confidence and identity about the Asia-Pacific region. As young officer, Seed was impressed by O’Brien’s sense and understanding that national reconciliation was at the heart of the NZ political project - before it was commonplace. The Treaty of Waitangi, the things that it stands for, and the domestic political will to build on it, are not only important for the country domestically, but stand as a point of difference in the world.
Seed closed with an anecdote on O’Brien’s ability to not only see the humour in situations but also see solutions — most useful attributes in diplomacy.
The panellists then handled twenty minutes of Q&A, starting with a question on bipartisanship in foreign policy. (Quick points: NZ’s foreign policy by & large is bipartisan, but not always: Vietnam War, South African sporting contacts, TPP. It is hard work to achieve bipartisanship, but politicians have invested in this, and Terence’s point on reconciliation at the hart of our national political project, the skills & experiences there are pertinent for our FP). A question on data capture by foreign powers, to which the panel responded that all nations are listening. A question on NZ’s policy being akin to appeasement, without example, relating to Ukraine, to which two panelists took strong issue. The talk was closed by 2nd son Daniel O’Brien, on the note of thanks with which the talk had started - Gratitude and Optimism - with special thanks to Diplosphere and Maty, to Elizabeth O’Brien (O’Brien’s wife) of nearly sixty years.
The themes, when it came to NZ’s place in the world, we’ve discussed today resonate over decades – even-handedness vs. exceptionalism, independence of mind, the inexorable shift from West to East, the precept that all foreign policy begins at home, the importance of reconciliation and the Treaty of Waitangi for Aotearoa New Zealand, the multi-lateral rules based world which has stood NZ is such good stead, a deep appreciation for history, but an ever youthful eye to a better future. [..] Maty picked up on Terence’s points on Gratitude and Optimism. I think all our speakers will agree these hallmarks have come through in Terence’s works.
Daniel O’Brien, concluding remarks
Tap the Like button, and use the Share button to share across social media. And feel free to leave a comment if you are so inclined, and remember to subscribe if you haven't done so already.