NZ is under pressure for its stance on China from the Five Eyes group of nations. Illustration / Rod Emmerson
NZ is under pressure for its stance on China from the Five Eyes group of nations. Illustration / Rod Emmerson
OPINION
When it comes to intelligence, sharing is powerful. It's how nations trade and protect themselves and their allies without arms.
That trust is hard to build and easy to lose. It's won in battle or grown through families. If it fails, the costs can be higher than expected.
Theexpectation of common defence, of common protection in a world of threats — electronic as well as physical — underpins faith in a political system. This trust isn't just about today, it's a guarantee for tomorrow.
The most insidious attack against it is not breaches of security; they happen in any system. It's doubt. The dripping erosion of confidence that leaves once-certain assumptions questioned.
Getting over this in wartime is easier. The enemy, there; present and real; threatening the lives of friends; makes it easy to overlook the danger. It's peace that makes it hard. Who is an enemy? What compromises must be made to keep secrets? Where do you draw the lines?
That's why so few intelligence alliances survive peace.
Tom Tugendhat. Photo / Supplied
One that has, against many challenges, is the Five Eyes community. It works because it's about more than information, it's about us.
As a community we are making a bet. That the people we're giving information to will keep it safe, not just now, but forever. That means we're not just betting on them, but on their successors. If we couldn't make that deal, we would share less, see less and be weaker. That's what makes it hard, and that's what makes Five Eyes unique.
There are many reasons we've been able to achieve the remarkable feat of a longstanding, deep alliance. Historical family links have helped. How many MacArthurs, Smiths and Morgans have been at both ends of closely guarded secrets despite living thousands of miles away?
"...history connects the #FiveEyes – the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It connects them through wars, literature, music and all the things that make us who we are. All are different, but all are linked."
But if that's all it was, it wouldn't have lasted. The Five Eyes alliance works because it's about more than family: it's about the future. What people in our islands, and continents, want is a shared vision of a free world, personal liberty and individual opportunity. We have, and always will, reject the totalitarian power of dictators, and the authoritarian absolutism of tyrants.
We haven't always agreed on strategy.
New Zealand joined Australia in supporting the United States military action in Vietnam. No one doubted the courage of New Zealanders in fighting alongside our allies, but Canada and the United Kingdom didn't agree with the policy. Still, we never doubted the depth of our alliance.
That confidence in the future, no matter what the troubles of today, is what makes the Five Eyes alliance unique. We know that the people of our five nations will share the same values tomorrow as we do today, and we can have confidence in our shared ideals.
That strength builds alliances and inspires many who are not part of the club to want to work with us and share the benefits. It also attracts envy and hostility.
That's why some countries, like China, are frequently heard criticising the alliance. They're trying to suggest, wrongly, that the five of us are doing more than defending our interests and those of free people everywhere. They're trying to persuade others that we are hostile.
NZ is under pressure for its stance on China from the Five Eyes group of nations. Illustration / Rod Emmerson
If we are, we're only hostile to their attempts to use state power to restrict freedoms at home and abroad. And that's a hostility that's shared well beyond our capitals.
It's for those places that the attacks on us continue. Our enemies know we will hold together so they attempt to create the illusion of mistrust between us to dissuade others from joining us and holding out against them.
So we must watch our words. Those countries and people who see us as standing for something need to know that we're more than an intelligence alliance that guards itself. Those who, rightly, see New Zealand as a beacon of freedom; good governance; and the rule of law in the region; built on a history of seafarers looking for opportunity, need to know that we will also look out for others.
Today, the Five Eyes is more than a partnership of free nations with a common history and many ancestral connections. We are as rooted in Pacific culture as we are in the Atlantic and our trust allows more than just a sharing of secrets.
Whatever changes in the coming years, we need to build on all those cultures and extend the rights that we know matter. We can't be just a closed club. That depends on imagination and generosity, and the singular perspective that each member brings.
It also means not shutting ourselves off to what we may need to become by limiting ourselves to what we are today. No one is asking New Zealand to extend the power of Five Eyes, but only to recognise that we need to evolve to keep each other safe.
That means working with those on the side of liberty and being cautious of those only offering gold.
• Tom Tugendhat is a Conservative MP and chairs the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
