Browsing by Author "Battersby J"

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    New Zealand's Counter Terrorism Strategy: A Critical Assessment
    (Centre for Defence and Security Studies, Massey University, 23/06/2020) Ball R; Battersby J; Nelson N
    In mid-February 2020 New Zealand released its long overdue ‘Countering terrorism and violent extremism national strategy.’ This article draws on the experience of three academic commentators who cast a critical eye over the document and whose respective thoughts are brought together here. The approach taken is to discuss the purpose and fundamentals of what strategy is to provide a framework with which to review New Zealand’s first publicly released counter-terrorism strategy. Unfortunately, this important and long overdue strategy, in the view of the authors, comes up well short of what it should be. The authors offer a challenge to New Zealand’s policy makers concerned with national security to seek more depth in the consideration of their approach, to present a strategy with less graphic design, more substantial discussion of the fundamental questions relating to the management of modern terrorism and violent extremism, and an appreciation of the nuanced New Zealand experience with political violence from late twentieth century to the present day.
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    Public Inquiries on Counterterrorism: An Independent Appraisal of New Zealand's Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Terrorist Attack
    Rogers D; Nelson N; Battersby J
    Even though elected leaders of liberal democracies respond to major terrorist attacks by commissioning public inquiries, scholars have not yet fully explored these inquiries as a practice of the War on Terror. By undertaking an independent appraisal of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019 we seek to introduce empirical evidence of an important case of investigatory oversight to the more critical terrorism studies literature. Specifically, we examine how the Royal Commissioners interpreted their Terms of Reference, explore the ways in which they engaged with New Zealand’s security agencies as well as with various individuals, groups and communities beyond the public sector, and assess the quality of their recommendations. We argue that the Commissioners positioned themselves publicly as undertaking a remedial intervention in New Zealand’s counterterrorism effort, but their inquiry was, in fact, designed to reassure the public that the current security dispensation is largely fit for purpose and does not need major reform. The inquiry did little more than enable two carefully chosen Commissioners, imbued with a veneer of professional detachment but lacking in subject-matter expertise, to call for a strengthening of state security institutions, entrenching the hierarchies that already prevail within the national security system while shielding parliamentarians from accusations of disinterest, negligence or acts of omission. Consequently, New Zealand is no better off when it comes to its ability to understand the nature and scale of the threat posed by terrorism or to respond to an array of routine, as well as novel and surprise, security challenges.
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    The Phantom Eye: New Zealand and the Five Eyes
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-05-20) Battersby J; Ball R
    New Zealand’s involvement in the Five Eyes is under-reported in academic and general literature. New Zealand’s participation was initially due to its integration within World War II western alliance intelligence systems, which evolved further after the war ended. Once in, New Zealand’s role became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, but genuine nonetheless. Changes in communications technology, access to US technical capability, and geopolitical changes in the Pacific have all led to a viable New Zealand role in Five Eyes, as both contributor and beneficiary. But to retain this, New Zealand must increase its foreign intelligence capability in the future.