Indo-Pacific tensions focus of Foreign Policy School

Which region contains 65 per cent of the world’s population and is caught in the crosshairs of intensifying great power rivalries, while the futures of many small states hang in the balance?

Tensions of the Indo-Pacific will be up for two days’ robust discussion between international experts, diplomats and analysts at the 59th Otago Foreign Policy School, to be held at the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka next week.

Co-director Professor Robert Patman

Co-director Professor Robert Patman says the Indo-Pacific has emerged as the most dynamic region in the world in the 21st century and a key driver of global politics.

“It contains 40 or so states, comprises 65 per cent of the world’s population, accounts for 60 per cent of global GDP and is home to the fastest-growing economies, including China and India, which are expected to be the leading economies by 2050.

“Great power competition between the world’s two superpowers, the United States and China, has been intensifying during the last decade and it has centred on the Indo-Pacific where superpowers both seek to play a key role.”

The vastness of the region also highlights the limitations of superpower influence where many of the key problems like climate change, pandemics and financial contagion do not respect borders and can only be resolved through multilateral cooperation, he says.

The conference will focus on the experiences of New Zealand, Pacific Island countries, as well as small powers in the Indian Ocean region and Southeast Asia.

“Are small states resigned to being simply pawns in a US-China strategic game or will they exert agency to promote the need for the superpowers to work cooperatively on regional and global issues?” Professor Patman questions.

He credits this year’s lineup of national and international speakers as “outstanding”.

“This team of speakers will also examine how small states, including New Zealand, can exert some degree of agency in addressing challenges in the areas of global change, economics, health and security.”

Fellow Co-director Professor Patrick Köllner, Vice-President of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, is travelling to New Zealand for the event and says he is “very much looking forward to the conference with its stimulating format bringing together academics and practitioners”.

It is the second Otago Foreign Policy School joint venture between GIGA and Otago since 2018, as part of a wider partnership agreement between the two institutions since 2014.

The event will also host a roundtable to commemorate 50 years of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), chaired by Asia New Zealand Foundation Chief Executive Suzannah Jessep.

Professor Patman explains establishing diplomatic ties with ASEAN was an important step in the emergence of a more independent New Zealand foreign policy that was striving to establish new trade and diplomatic relationships in Southeast Asia, in a way that was consistent with a broader emphasis on multilateralism and a rules-based international order.

Included in the 2025 lineup are keynote speaker Professor Kai He, from Griffith University in Brisbane; Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Associate Professor Sandra Tarte from University of the South Pacific in Suva; H.E. Mazita Marzuki, High Commissioner of Malaysia to New Zealand, and other international and national speakers.

Key themes of the School, covered through keynote talks and interactive sessions, aim to include:

• Small States’ Agency and International Order Transition: Theoretical and Conceptual Perspectives

• New Zealand’s Agency in International Affairs

• Small States’ Agency at the Regional and Global Levels: Evidence from the Pacific Islands Region

• Small States’ Agency and Strategic Competition in other World Regions

• New Zealand-ASEAN Relations at 50

Event details:

Otago Foreign Policy School: Small Powers and Strategic Competition in the Indo-Pacific, 27-29 June 2025 
For a full list of speakers and programme, click here