Showing the world that we give a damn

Defence authority Glyn Harper says there is a simple reason New Zealand soldiers are serving on five continents.

"We give a damn," says Associate Professor Harper, director of Massey University's Centre for Defence Studies.

This weekend almost 9 per cent of New Zealand's defence force is overseas. Around 500 are on operational duty, and 292 are on training exercises or diplomatic or exchange missions.

New Zealand troops are involved in a wide range of deployments, from high-profile peacekeeping missions such as East Timor to less public work in the United States with Operation Enduring Freedom.

"We see this as part of our role as being a good international citizen who cares about what's happening in our world and what's happening in our region," said Professor Harper.

"We see it as a good thing, to be involved in restoring peace. We have a long tradition of being involved."

New Zealand's longest-standing peacekeeping commitment is in the Sinai, with troops having played a role in monitoring the Egyptian-Israel peace treaty since 1981. Other lengthy deployments have been to Cyprus, Zimbabwe, Bougainville and the former Yugoslavia.

Former senior diplomat Terence O'Brien said New Zealand played its part in multinational military operations for moral and economic reasons.

"This small country has genuine global interests and those interests are in being able to trade in the world, being able to attract investment from the world, to operate in a world where to the greatest extent possible its own ideals and values are shared," said Mr O'Brien, a former Ambassador to the United Nations and European Union.

"Any country that enjoys advantages has to play its part, commensurate with its abilities to do so, in keeping the world a peaceable and prosperous place."

He said New Zealand was taking part in 12 international missions, although many were small or single-person deployments. That reflected New Zealand's small size, and that personnel overseas tended to be sent on specific missions.

"Kiwis are good at nation building. Kiwis are good at getting their hands dirty and treating people as equals ... which [some] larger powers are not capable of doing."