Small Advenced Economies and the Shifting Dynamics in Asia–Pacific: The Case of New Zealand

Abstract

This study examines how a small advanced economy such as New Zealand navigates shifting geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics in the Asia-Pacific under intensifying greatpower rivalry. The study aims to answer how a state with limited material weight can manage, and at times shape, regional upheaval in a multipolar environment marked by US-China competition and Pacific instability. It focuses on the Pacific Reset policy (2018) and the interaction of identity, economy, and security in its regional strategy as the main channels through which this agency is expressed.

The study concludes that New Zealand has pursued an independent Pacific centered strategy that links regional stability to national security, replaces donor-recipient logic with partnership, and uses trade, aid, and regional institutions to expand influence beyond its material size. It also finds that New Zealand follows a middle path between its economic ties with China and its Western security commitments, while embedding Māori and Pacific identity more deeply into foreign policy practice.