New Zealand's Geopolitics and the US-China Competition

Dr. Steff will present his new book in which he argues that New Zealand is awakening to an increasingly contested geopolitical reality defined by US-China Great power competition, global multipolar (dis)order and a systemic polycrisis. Collectively, this is undermining the post-1945 rules-based international system critical to New Zealand’s security and prosperity. A new era of interdependent strategic competition is upon us. This has immense geostrategic implications for every state and region, including the South Pacific – an area of existential importance to New Zealand. In this context it’s critical we recognise our nation's fundamental geopolitical reality, the imperatives that flow from it, and then consider options going forward.

Dr. Steff will explain his motivation for writing the book, touch upon its contours and some of its main insights and findings. He’ll also opine upon recent developments (Trump 2.0, multipolarity, European security, the shift towards a war system, etc) and their implications for New Zealand.

About Reuben Steff

Dr Reuben Steff is Senior Lecturer of Geopolitics and International Relations at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Prior to his time in academia, he spent 2.5 years working on international security issues in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

His research includes Great Power Competition, emerging technologies, nuclear deterrence theory, and New Zealand geopolitics.

He has multiple journal publications, including ‘“Our region is now a strategic theatre”: New Zealand’s balancing response to China’ (Pacific Review, 2024) and is author of five books, including: New Zealand’s Geopolitics and the US-China Competition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), US Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump
Drivers, Strategy and Tactics (Routledge, 2021), Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State and War (Routledge, 2020).

He regularly participates in policy development processes, attends roundtables on international security issues, and participates in track 1.5 and track 2 dialogues.