8 minute read
A New Zealand Diplomatic Memoir
Author: Terence O’Brien
Published by: Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington Press, Wellington, 2024, 192pp, $40.
In the mid-1990s, undergraduate students of international politics (like me) were mesmerised by New Zealand’s diplomatic presence on the UN Security Council. The Cold War was dissipating, and the 1991 Gulf War suggested the possibility of a new era for the United Nations and collective security, hopes that then were dashed by failings in Somalia and inaction in the face of genocide in Rwanda. Centre stage in the unfolding drama at the United Nations was seasoned diplomat Terence O’Brien. Instantly recognisable in later life by his shock of silver hair, sharp retorts and snappy interjections, O’Brien did not suffer fools gladly, but when one had a chance to get to know him it became clear that he was nonetheless an incredibly generous individual with a zest for life and living.
As the preface by former Prime Minister Jim Bolger indicates, this book is as much about the making, shaping and practicing of New Zealand’s foreign policy as it is about O’Brien. But we also get a glimpse at his personal life, with the foreword by his wife and children noting that he (literally) became grounded as a New Zealander with his barefoot walk over sand to school in Mt Maunganui. It is a privilege to learn about diplomacy from one who lived it so well, and O’Brien’s personality as well as his classical style of writing shines through in this volume.
Small colourful details bring to life what could have been a rather dull relaying of official business. Throughout the opening pages of his memoir, O’Brien notes how privileges were doled out in the form of after-hours drinks and banned shellfish in Wellington and how burning highly classified files in a 44-gallon drum when posted in Bangkok necessitated a chasing down of all floating scraps of burning paper to prevent them from wafting over the fence to the Soviet embassy next door. There are stories of the RNZAF breaking the loading record for the C-130 Hercules aircraft to get furnishings delivered to the brand new New Zealand embassy in Beijing in 1973, and a reminder of what life was like in Beijing in that era, with evocative descriptions of ‘thousands upon thousands of cyclists everywhere on the main city thoroughfares, all dressed alike in Mao style’. In the 1970s in London, he informs us that offices in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office were kept, probably dismally, warm by coal-fed open fires, and that efforts to negotiate important trade deals were at times by necessity fuelled by ‘elderly sandwiches’. These details help to bring this diplomatic journey to life and are dotted throughout the book, providing lily pads of amusement for a tired reader.
At times, too, O’Brien draws attention to little known events, such as the Viet Cong bombing of a hotel within which New Zealand had set up an official presence, and the consequent injuring of New Zealand’s recently appointed chargé d’affaires. The fact that New Zealand only ceased whaling in 1964 will be of news to some, as will the recounting of the Lange government’s interest in Denmark as a test case for thinking about New Zealand’s non-nuclear policy. Denmark also had a ban on nuclear-armed vessels in ports but did not require confirmation from visiting ships that they were not carrying such arms. Similarly, the fact that the Foreign Ministry’s leadership was in two minds about putting forward a bid for UN Security Council membership is little known and casts doubt on the dominant narrative about New Zealand’s desire to be a good international citizen.
O’Brien writes with a gentle humour throughout, humanising the perceived ‘high politics’ of diplomatic life. Indeed, this is a major contribution of the book: it underscores the lived realities of diplomatic life as being one of largely mundane tasks that cumulatively combine to help New Zealand to secure trade deals, de-escalate political crises or negotiate strategic alliances. Indeed, the title itself indicates both O’Brien’s ability to poke fun at himself and his awareness that a foreign affairs career offers up a smoke and mirrors impression of the high life, whilst demanding brutal personal and professional commitment involving serious graft and grind.
The photographs at the centre of the book are similarly instructive. Were they all staged handshakes they could be viewed as a brag sheet of ‘important people Terence has known’, but the casual nature of many of them underscores again the relentless work involved in diplomacy that takes place 24/7 in ever-changing locations, as well as the enduring nature of the work — with no less than six New Zealand prime ministers appearing in the photographs.
However, this work also moves out of the diplomatic sphere and into academia as O’Brien finished his working life with the establishment and leadership of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Designed to increase understanding of foreign affairs, amongst other things, this centre and its various leaders have benefitted New Zealand greatly. O’Brien mentions taking on an unpaid intern — David Capie — who has come full circle to ably lead the CSS today. Here some of the highlights are discussions about an unprecedented visit to North Korea in 1998 and a frank relaying of the tensions inherent in attempting to retain independence from government whilst nonetheless commenting on governmental affairs. In this section, as in a few others, there are hints of resistances to his appointments to various positions, but — perhaps for gentlemanly reasons — these resistances are not prodded.
As well as providing engaging prose, O’Brien also raises some of his long-standing pet hates. The lack of understanding about the importance of international affairs and the dearth of appreciation of the need to properly resource diplomatic efforts come up several times in the book. On the latter there is reference to ‘cheeseparing budgets’ and suggestions that the Ministry of External Relations and Trade (the Foreign Ministry’s name from 1988–93) was ‘frequently sidelined’ when it came to advice regarding cost-cutting exercises in the South Pacific. Such assertions are contestable, particularly as all of ‘NZ Inc’ tends to run on a shoestring, but were some of his key beliefs.
Relatedly, O’Brien beats another drum when he emphasises the fact that, particularly in the absence of hard power options, ‘diplomacy remains New Zealand’s first specification in international relations. Intelligence does not make foreign policy; it supplements it’. For O’Brien, ‘Diplomacy cannot spin straw into gold, but it remains a venerable tool for managing relations between countries’.
O’Brien’s work also suggests reasons for caution in connecting day-to-day diplomatic activities with an assumed overarching strategic narrative. He notes, for example, that the work carried out during the Vietnam War ‘conveyed little sense of involvement with a grand strategic plan to arrest the so-called domino theory’ and describes instances of well-intentioned aid and development failures on and off throughout the book. Such words are helpful in reminding us that diplomacy is not often as ordered or as well planned as we might like to think.
At times, too, O’Brien discusses some of the more negative aspects of foreign policy life. In the opening pages, for example, he readily admits that ‘patriarchy ruled’ in Wellington in his early years as a diplomat, and that at least one UN secretary-general was uncertain about appointing women to senior roles. He nods to the distastefulness of needing to uphold government objectives in the face of contradictory evidence: he had doubts about transplanting the Westminster model of politics into the Cook Islands and indicated concerns about the human toll exacted by sanctions in Iraq.
This brings me to the main critique I could level at this work, which is that, at times, the reader needs additional unpacking and personal evaluations of contentious issues raised. We learn that the New Zealand embassy in Bangkok, where O’Brien served, is given responsibility for Vietnam affairs during the early stages of the Vietnam War. In speaking of the embassy’s support for establishing a New Zealand surgical team in Qui Nhon, he notes that: ‘New Zealand hoped the commitment might perhaps allow us to sidestep further American requests for direct military support in the deteriorating security situation. In the event, those hopes proved forlorn.’
In such instances he leaves the reader hanging. What wringing of hands was occurring in Bangkok and Wellington at the time, and what other devices were considered to try to ‘sidestep’ American pressure? Later, too, he notes that the tension between whether aid should be a national foreign policy tool or more a social development activity remains a ‘perennial topic’ without really indicating his own thoughts on the matter.
However, in the opening of his work O’Brien warned the reader that he needed to be ‘choosy’ in his reminiscing, and, overall, what he has ‘chosen’ here to share with us results in both an insightful and warm account of diplomatic life, traits that I believe people that knew him would associate with the man himself. He ends with a note of exasperation that the Covid pandemic had appeared to result in ‘downright nationalistic’ re- sponses when a communal response would have yielded so much more and implores New Zealand policy-makers to prioritise even-handedness in dealing with strategic competition in the years ahead. Wise words from the veteran. Vale, Terence.
