The Emergence of International Studies in New Zealand

Abstract

With acceptance of the responsibilities of a founder member of the League of Nations - including assuming an international mandate in the Pacific - the prospect of a distinctive New Zealand international role and awareness emerged, thus laying the foundation for a local version of international studies. The early figures in the field were a group of intellectuals trained in history, law, or economics, often with experience of British higher education. Members of the League of Nations Union, the Institute of Pacific Relations, and later the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, their activities and publications sometimes challenged the boundaries of Empire-centric discourse. An avowed Internationalism - though sometimes compromised by racial anxieties - was a strong theme in their work; the impact of US foundations especially stimulated a knowledge of the importance to New Zealand of extra-Imperial issues in the Pacific and Asia. Although only intermittently engaged with policy, their influence is nevertheless discernible, especially from 1935.