Anzac Day’s message in a world edging towards conflict – Editorial

Christopher Luxon meeting New Zealand and British troops who are training the Ukrainian armed forces in the UK.

Editorial

THREE KEY FACTS

• This Anzac Day highlights global instability, with conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and tensions in the Pacific.
• New Zealand’s defence budget will exceed 2% of GDP, with $12 billion over four years.
• This month marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War.

It is said that war is the extension of politics by violent means.

And so, in our increasingly uncertain world, this year’s Anzac Day is perhaps more important than most.

We watch from afar as Europe remains in the shadow of its first major conflict since World War II. The continent is rearming as soldiers slug it out in Ukrainian fields and trenches. Death descends daily over Gaza and Israel, and closer to home there are storms gathering in the Pacific, fuelled by an American and Chinese trade war.

Despite being at the bottom of the world, we are increasingly aware that the international rules-based order, which has seen our country thrive since 1945, is under threat.

For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the actions of powerful nations have shaken our belief in a peace we had come to take for granted.

The Government’s increase in defence spending also suggests the unease around global stability.

New Zealand will hit a defence budget of more than 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) within the next eight years, with $12 billion in funding over the next four years, $9b of which is “new”.

But, as Defence Minister Judith Collins said, this is not “about choosing sides or beating the drums of war”. Rather, it is about preventing conflict and supporting a peace.

We are not alone in this, with allies such as Australia and the United Kingdom increasing defence spending as they sense a changing environment.

New Zealand, like many other Western countries, has also seen increasing distrust in its institutions – government, the courts, media, democracy.

Research from the Helen Clark Foundation showed nearly a third of us were sympathetic to “having a strong leader who does not have to bother with Parliament and elections”.

It is a worrying trend.

This Anzac Day, like every other, we will remember our veterans who fought and died in all our wars. But this year, let us also reflect on how the world arrived at those dark places.

Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past but learn from its lessons. In our world, the true enemy must be war itself.

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