The chief executive of New Zealand's Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) has given some advice to small countries in the Indo-Pacific region on how best to deal with global challenges and issues.
Speaking at a recent discussion on "Small-State Dilemmas in The Indo-Pacific Era: The Case of New Zealand" held at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Brook Barrington said small states were being confronted with multiple dilemmas.
They included the fragmentation among member states on the adoption of a post-war liberal rule-based order; clashes between democracy and autocratic systems and limited Asean centrality when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations needed to be more united, he said.
"However, whether small or large states, we are facing the same key challenges: how to interact and retain human capital, how to sustain social cohesion, whether during times of climate change or a pandemic, how to manage the issue of intergenerational equity, how to secure long and complex supply chains, and how to deal with climate change.
"So, whether small or large, or whether it's hard or soft power, we are all in this together," Mr Barrington said.
He said that although New Zealand does not see itself as a small country as it has long been engaged with the international community, it is, nonetheless, still small.
As New Zealand is located in the Indo-Pacific, which has long been significant demographically, culturally and geopolitically, he argued the island country would like to make a suggestion for small nations to manage their dilemmas, navigating themselves the best they can during this era.
First, he said small countries must strengthen and sustain their local economic, social and institutional resilience at home to deal with the outside world.
Second, these small states should reinforce and support global collaboration by upholding the postwar liberal rule-based system, remembering the numerous benefits which have been delivered over the decades through fundamental human rights and human equality.
Third, they should act in line with national values such as human rights, gender equality, state sovereignty and climate actions. They should look for areas to build cooperation, and seek peace and security through dialogue.
Fourth, they should use the economic architecture to reinforce connectivity, neutral interests and uphold the resilience of the region. Fifth, they should work with other nations to strengthen regional and multilateral institutions to ensure their continued relevance, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).
Sixth, they need to ensure that the interests and voices of the people of the region are known, as they are important in their own rights and to the region, and are crucial to the fight against climate change. And lastly, small states should use soft power whenever they can, Mr Barrington said.
"Small states do not have many options. We will be strong enough but perhaps, with the biggest paradox of all, in the age of social media, climate change, pandemics, cybercrime, for example, perhaps the large or more powerful states do not have that many options either," he said.