The crisis in the ANZUS relationship had far-reaching importance because it was seen as a challenge to the concept of extended nuclear deterrence as the critical variable in Western security. New Zealand's ban on warships affected the kind of military deployment which is considered by some as a symbol and trigger of commitment, and by others as an aspect of domination. This chapter surveys the visit policies of ‘non-nuclear’ countries in alliance with the United States, and also suggests that New Zealand's defiance had only a limited demonstration effect. Compartmentalization in the alliance system probably ensured this rather than American attempts to make New Zealand an object lesson.

US reprisals, in fact, drew attention to the problem of instilling centralized discipline. As an editorial in The Times (14 August 1986) put it: ‘No one who values amity among the nations of the Free World could have watched American action being taken against New Zealand without alarm.’ In an increasingly fragmented international system it is, by definition, more difficult to sustain the stability which one would expect to derive from the hegemonic imposition of policy. In such circumstances alliance leaders will tend to regard military collaboration and access to allied facilities as all the more important. But it is a moot point whether the Western Alliance would have been any worse off had the US tolerated untidiness and idiosyncrasy, and not viewed New Zealand's policy as a global threat.