Analysis by Keith Rankin.
Role: Economic historian.
Keith Rankin, 19 October 2026 – On Wednesday’s leaders debate (about 1 hour in), we got this question: “Should New Zealand join the EU?” Chris Hipkins said “yes”, if such membership was on offer. Luxon was more equivocal, though not dismissive. Overall there was remarkably little on international affairs (at a time when we may or may not be in World War Three), and no commentary afterwards. Hipkins’ Europhiliac answer disappeared into the crevices of the ‘elephant in the room’, possibly because much of New Zealand’s elite commentariat is Euro-supremacist at heart though not willing to come out as anti-Asian. Best to tiptoe.
(In that tiny segment of the ‘debate’ on foreign relations, there was some anti-Iranian sentiment relating to the IRGC, followed by strong pro-Ukraine sentiment. There was also irresponsible talk that China might invade Taiwan in or after 2028. Hipkins spoke about maintaining “peace in the Taiwan Strait”. Hipkins claims to favour a “morality-based” foreign policy on Ukraine and on China re Taiwan; this is code for favouring ‘good versus evil’ belligerent narrative over geopolitical realism. We are presented with a scenario of China, for no reason, suddenly deciding to invade the big island of Taiwan – no mention of the little islands of Taiwan such as those in Xiamen Harbour. And just as we face the relentless though unfounded presumption that Russia wants to conquer Europe.)
While the Euro-West is burning (literally) – and the rule of Macron, Merz, and Starmer became democratically untenable because of their prioritisation of Russophobia and Judeophilia over their own national wellbeing – the Euro-West establishment (ie their parties equivalent to National and Labour) are waging a rhetorical war against Near Asia (Russia and Iran) and Far Asia (China and North Korea); and are sacrificing Ukraine to a nasty unwinnable death-sprial against Russia. There is no moral dimension to this. Even if the Asian powers are as evil as the Euro-West elites say they are, the potential consequences to the inhabitants of the contested Eurasian lands – lands populated by Orthodox Christian Slavs and Muslim Arabs – and the innocent Global South are catastrophic.
(We may imagine a Sino-Mexican arrangement to install Asian troops and missiles ‘south of the [United States] border’. And if Mexican militias started firing Chinese drones at ‘Gulf of America’ oil refineries. No American president could tolerate that.)
So why would New Zealand – increasingly an Asian country in demography as well as physical geography, and all the better for that – want to align itself with a dying Euro-West; an increasingly inconsequential geopolity that’s “completely lost the plot” to repurpose a phrase from our leader who (despite wanting to assist Ukraine in its project of national suicide) clearly understands that New Zealand would be utterly marooned in the world if detached from Asia?
Robert Muldoon successfully pivoted New Zealand away from Europe towards Asia in the 1970s and 1980s. Subsequent governments – especially National governments – further embraced that pivot. It’s largely been from 2020 that New Zealand elites have turned away, sentimentally, from Asia; and reactionaries have emerged from the woodwork. That may be because of – rather than despite – the accelerated post-2022 populating of Aotearoa New Zealand with people of Asian ancestry, especially among those under 50 years-old and among New Zealand’s new born.
I have little doubt that New Zealand has become a more racist country this decade than it was in the previous five decades. But New Zealand doesn’t remotely compare with Israel and Ukraine as racist countries. Just try doing a Google search ‘Ukraine football racism’ to get a sense of racism in that Luxon-loving country. (One appalling new example of open anglo-supremacist racism in New Zealand is this YouTube channel The Anglo-Saxon. See this egregiously racist example of advocacy for tactical/strategic voting: Let me change your mind about the New Zealand Election 2026.)
Two of the three most ego-driven politicians in the world today are the leaders of Israel and Ukraine; and neither of these two men cares in the slightest bit about the impact of their behaviour on the wider world. These are failed nations which the European Union remains staunchly allied to, and promotes through nefarious geopolitics. EU countries – themselves perpetrators of many historic genocides – continue to look the other way despite their complicity in the most malicious televised genocide ever.
It is interesting to see how, in the present televised French protests and riots (including the dramatic footage of the burning of the Limoges town hall), it is clear that non-peaceful rioters have undermined the narrative of the students just wanting better schools. Indeed, the claim that parties with violent insurrectionist agendas have taken over these protests is uncontroversial. While there have been no deaths so far (except one case of cardiac arrest), Google AI tells me that “more than 500 police officers, firefighters, and paramedics were injured during the violent demonstrations and fires”. Violent demonstrations are riots, not demonstrations. New Zealand saw peaceful demonstrations in 1981; no police were injured, so all the violence then was perpetrated by the police.
In Iran there was an event in January 2026, similar to France though two orders of magnitude larger. About 220 police and security personnel were killed during those events, and perhaps 30,000 others – a mix of rioters, protesters and bystanders. The argument that what was initially a simple peaceful protest was hijacked by people sponsored by Mossad and the like was at least as strong as the argument relating to the hijacking of the French school protests. This extremely violent event – violence from both sides, but not all of both sides – was used as a pretext for Israel and America to wage an offensive and illegal war and campaign of assassination on Iran, despite it having all the appearances of a set-up; as similar events in Iran in 1953 are now clearly documented to have been a setup.
We demonise Iran by demonising the IRGC because Iranian political bosses are so difficult to demonise. (Effectively the Euro-world gaslights the Iranian leadership; just as Othello was gaslit in that famous Shakespearian tragedy. Everyone in New Zealand knows the name of the Russian president. Very few New Zealanders know the name of the Iranian president; a reformist who was democratically elected in July 2024, survived the assassinations, and who has near-fully liberalised the street-culture of Iran. The Iranian dress-code liberalised as quickly as the New Zealand Parliamentary dress-code!)
The 500-year European imperial project of world-domination is in its death throes. Why would we in New Zealand want to rejoin it? We are increasingly exposed to silly narratives about the geopolitical ambitions of China, Iran, and Russia; and it may not be long before such narratives extend towards gaslighting our near-neighbour Indonesia which is aligned geopolitically to its Asian co-BRICS. New Zealand needs to embrace Asia, for security and prosperity. When Europeans came to Asia they were long seen as barbarians, and that’s increasingly what they’re seen as today. (By 2050, people with only European ancestry will be about five percent of the world’s population.)
The elitist European retro-liberal project has today descended into one of murder-suicide-manslaughter; murderous intent towards Russia through a military stalemate, suicide of Ukraine, collateral manslaughter of non-combatants by making the world a less habitable place. Europe is facing its most embarrassing period in world history since the Dark Ages.
On balance, and given their support for a dying European project, I would have to label the Hipkins-led Labour Party as eurosupremacist, as believers in the moral (and possibly intellectual) superiority of western Europeans. (Indeed we saw this during the Covid19 pandemic and the general disrespect the government showed for resident workers without permanent residence – denizens, of which New Zealand has many – whether stuck in New Zealand or stuck outside of New Zealand); and on balance Hipkins too – and Luxon – given their overt support for EU foreign policy. Euro-Kiwis became particularly sympathetic to Ukraine in and around 2022 precisely because they looked and talked like us; we easily identified with them. We saw ‘us’ when we looked at them on our screens.
When we look at ourselves in the mirror, too many of us still see Europe. However, Europe is – literally – the antipodes! Nevertheless, Asia is our lifeline. Or our deathline if we choose to go that way in a decreasingly secure world.
References
The general talk among the realist academic community is that the world is safer now, because the Euro-American ‘unipolar moment’ has been defeated – note past tense – and that the important political and academic discussions are about the present – not future – construction of a constructive multipolar world, and whether Europe can or will play any serious part in this future world order. There is clear understanding though, that Europe – especially with the support of a likeminded future retro-liberal United States administration – can still do a lot of preventative harm to the creation of a post-Europe world order. The United States has the serious means to flail about like a diminished madman. And, of course, however the multipolar order evolves, the United States will necessarily be one of its several poles.
I particularly recommend the analyses of these three international public intellectuals, all of whom made their reputations in the 1990s, and all born between 1945 and 1955: David Gibbs, Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer. See the following:
Jeffrey Sachs: Europe as a Frontline in a Multipolar World? Glenn Diesen
The Real Death of the West | Prof. David Gibbs; Neutrality Studies, Kyoto.
John Mearsheimer: Russia’s Existential War & the Rise of a Post-Western World Glenn Diesen
Will China Attack Taiwan? | Ask The Professor; John Mearsheimer
I would also recommend the two ‘peacemongers’: Swiss academic Pascal Lottaz (including at Kyoto) and British diplomat Ian Proud. Here is some of their work, along with some other presentations at the recent peace symposium in Kyoto.
Is Ukraine Europe’s Colony? | Why It Should Have Chosen Neutrality, with Pascal Lottaz, from The Peacemonger.
British Ex-Diplomat Detained for Peace Efforts, Reaching out to Russia | Ian Proud; Neutrality Studies.
Ukraine War Narrative COLLAPSES. Europe Starts Panicking | Ian Proud; Neutrality Studies.
The REAL Reason Europe Destroyed Itself | Dr. Ulrike Guérot; Neutrality Studies, Kyoto.
Europe’s Mass-Psychosis Getting WORSE | Prof. Mattias Desmet; Neutrality Studies, Kyoto.
Putin’s India Deal SHOCKS USA | Prof. Anuradha Chenoy; Neutrality Studies, Kyoto.
Ex-Foreign Minister EXPOSES NATO’s Dirty Tricks | Evarist Bartolo; Neutrality Studies, Kyoto.
Why China is NOT Scared of the USA | Zhang WeiWei; Neutrality Studies, Istanbul.
And note this re the Ukrainian insider-sceptic Iuliia Mendel:
Russia is Crushing Ukraine’s Capacity to Fight / Iuliia Mendel, from Daniel Davis / Deep Dive.
On the other side of the argument, here is Radosław Sikorski interviewed by Al Jazeera. Note his playing of the Munich card with his references to “pocket Chamberlains”; and his disparaging “payroll” reference to Gerhard Schroeder, former Chancellor of Germany, once compared to Tony Blair though not anymore. And here is the recent Berlin Briefing Special which mentions New Zealand.
Radosław Sikorski: Fear of Ukraine war spillover | Talk to Al Jazeera
Former German Economy Minister Habeck: Russia is still the biggest threat, Berlin Briefing.
About the writer:
Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.