Webinar video: Worth Defending: Freedom, prosperity and the case for a stronger New Zealand Defence Force
Why does New Zealand need a defence force at all when no one is going to attack us?
In this New Zealand Initiative webinar, retired Major General John Howard launches his research note Worth Defending, which argues that a credible, combat-capable Defence Force is not discretionary spending but the foundation on which the country's security, sovereignty and economic prosperity rest.
Speaking with Oliver Hartwich, Howard draws on four decades in uniform to describe what thirty years of decline looked like from the inside, why he thinks the $9 billion of new money is not enough, and what it would take to keep a rebuild going across two or three governments.
The conversation also covers what a closure of the Strait of Hormuz or a conflict over Taiwan would mean for New Zealand, and why intelligence and sovereign technology are where a small state can matter most.
Read the research note Worth Defending: Freedom, prosperity and the case for a stronger New Zealand Defence Force here.