Challenges to international security and stability are being acutely felt – both internationally and closer to home.
Our Defence Assessment 2021(external link), released just over a year ago, describes a much more challenging strategic environment for New Zealand than in recent decades. It identified principal challenges coming from growing strategic competition and the increasing impacts of climate change. These, as well as the continuing impacts of COVID-19, intersect with and are amplified by a range of other sources of insecurity, including emerging technologies, violent extremism, and transnational organised crime.
That is why Aotearoa New Zealand is looking at a defence policy shift to ensure we have the right settings in which to respond to the challenges we face both now, and those of the future.
Last year, the Government approved a Defence Policy Review – a comprehensive look at our defence settings to ensure we can respond to this dynamic global security environment. Defence is now working on strategy and policy that will provide a road map so we can ensure we have the right capability (people and assets) to respond.
We’d like to know your views(external link) as we shape this advice to Government.
Next steps
Defence is currently preparing a Defence Policy and Strategy Statement and a set of Future Force Design Principles for Government consideration and we invite you to provide your feedback(external link) via an online survey(external link) before 4 April 2023.
Defence has commissioned Kantar to develop this online survey(external link). You do not need to provide your contact details to complete the survey, but the feedback you provide may be published in full. A summary of all feedback will published on this website later this year.
The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.
Once you have completed the survey, if you have more to say, please email us at engage@defence.govt.nz. Note that all feedback is subject to Official Information Act.
Please take a few moments to learn about Defence Policy, the strategic environment and our Defence Force and let us know your feedback on key areas to assist us with the review.
Click here to go to the Ministry of Defence website