New Zealand is ranked highly on the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), which assess performance on six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability, political stability performance on six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. However, these indicators should not...

In this paper presented to the NZ Treasury, Jonathan Boston asks how governments can build good societies—specifically, what kind of public and economic policies should be pursued to reach this goal. Introduction: Public policy is an inherently ethical undertaking. It poses fundamental questions about how we ought to live and how we should order our...

Introduction: Growth in the manufacture, military use, and transfer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) and their associated systems proceeds apace. UAVs were initially employed on an intermittent basis for search and reconnaissance purposes, but it took the New York attacks of September 11 2001 to galvanise their production, proliferation and weaponisation. Since then...

New Zealand Prime Minister Key is treading cautiously on the question of whether New Zealand should support a military strike on Syria. He has spoken to United Nations Secretary, General Ban Ki-­Moon and New Zealand diplomats have been briefed by United States officials. The Prime Minister has said he is under no illusions about the...

This article examines the ways in which key environmental policies have been made in the past, and reflects on the present state of play with respect to these policies. The article draws on my experience with the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) since 1978 and the reflections are personal ones. The issues covered are: government agencies...