David Farrar: National security and NZ

The NZ Herald has an op ed by John Howard and Tim Ewing-Jarvie on national security.

I was privileged to hear them speak recently on this issue, and it was hugely illuminating (and depressing).

Before we get into what they say, it is worth highlighting what they have done – as that is relevant to their opinions.

James Alexander: America’s National Security Warning to Europe

There is value in following Trump’s comments. I wanted to see the recent interview in which he said “Europe is weak”, and this led me to something more serious, more apparently serious, I should say (since they are related): the recent publication of the ‘National Security Strategy of the United States of America‘. A primary document. I found it, and printed it out: 30 pages. And it is a good read: well-written, lacking the sort of matron-in-the-asylum-in-denial tone that afflicts the style in which HM Government documents are written.

NZCPR Newsletter: Protecting the Public Interest

History is replete with governments all over the world using nationalisation to protect a country’s assets and resources in the public interest.

The UK is currently in the throes of nationalising British Steel in the public interest. Established as a State corporation in 1967, British Steel was sold off in 1988, passing through a number of different owners – Dutch, Indian and Chinese – only to now face closure. With the steel sector vital for construction and infrastructure, the UK Government was worried that the loss of domestic steel production and an increasing reliance on foreign imports would weaken national security.

With threats to major assets and resources recognised as crucial triggers for Governments to introduce legislative safeguards in the public interest, surely it’s time the Coalition took action to protect New Zealand from the insatiable demands of tribal leaders and the corporate empires they now control.

Alexander Gillespie: Out of the shadows

Why making NZ’s security threat assessment public for the first time is the right move

Today’s release of the threat assessment by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) is the final piece in a defence and security puzzle that marks a genuine shift towards more open and public discussion of these crucial policy areas.

Alexander Gillespie: NZ’s first national security strategy signals a ‘turning point’ and the end of old certainties

When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz proclaimed a “Zeitenwende”, or historical turning point. It resulted in Germany’s first ever official national security strategy.

The equivalent wake-up call in New Zealand was the 2019 Christchurch terror attack. This hammered home, in the most horrific way, that geographic distance and small size no longer protected the country in ways they might have once.

Andrew Bolt: Woke Culture Becomes a Security Threat

 

Andrew Bolt Transcript: Woke Culture Becomes a Security Threat 

There's a mind rot – this woke culture. In fact, being woke is now a national security threat. And to prove it let me introduce New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister Nania Mahuta – as woke as they come.

Richard Epstein: In Defense of the NSA

Its wiretapping program has been derided as an intolerable invasion of individual privacy rights, but it has benefits for national security.

Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute and I wrote an op-ed in The Chicago Tribune that gave a qualified defense of the controversial NSA surveillance program. Libertarians from the left and the right have come together in shrill opposition to the wiretapping program; they object to the government’s collection, retention, and examination of sensitive individual data.

Richard Epstein: In Defense of the NSA

Its wiretapping program has been derided as an intolerable invasion of individual privacy rights, but it has benefits for national security.

This past week, Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute and I wrote an op-ed in The Chicago Tribune that gave a qualified defense of the controversial NSA surveillance program. Libertarians from the left and the right have come together in shrill opposition to the wiretapping program; they object to the government’s collection, retention, and examination of sensitive individual data.