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Citizen Advocacy: The Achievements of New Zealand's Peace Activism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

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Abstract

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Aotearoa New Zealand provides an important example of successful citizen activism in the form of anti-nuclear peace advocacy. The collective efforts by peace actors over several decades resulted in the successful demand for a nuclear-free nation. This paper highlights the widespread participation and political support that facilitated the process and assesses its achievements.

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2019

References

Notes

1 Herbert P., Kitschelt “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies,” British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1986): 57-85.

2 Ibid.

3 “Anti-Vietnam War Protests in New Zealand,” accessed July 8, 2018.

4 Alex Boyd, “Anti-Nuclear New Zealand: A report on the decline of anti-nuclear sentiment within the New Zealand public national identity”, the Peace Foundation, New Zealand (2016).

5 “World Court condemns French nuclear tests,” New Zealand History, accessed April 8, 2018.

6 Elsie Locke, Peace People: A History of Peace Activities in New Zealand (Hazard Press, Christchurch, 1992).

7 Interview, Laurie Ross, (Peace Activist), July 2018.

8 Kevin Clements, “New Zealand's Role in Promoting a Nuclear-free Pacific,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 24, no.4 (1988).

9 Interview, Alyn Ware (Peace educator and nuclear disarmament consultant), April 2018.

10 Kate Dewes, “Legal Challenges to Nuclear Weapons From Aotearoa/New Zealand,” British Review of New Zealand Studies, Number 12 (1999).

11 “New Zealand Historical Peace Dates-A Short List,” Disarmament & Security Center, accessed March 14, 2019.

12 Interview via email, Laurie Ross (Peace activist), July 17, 2018.

13 Interview, Alyn Ware (Peace educator and nuclear disarmament consultant), April 2018.

14 “New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987,” New Zealand Legislation Parliamentary Counsel Office, accessed May 23, 2018.

15 Amy Catalinac, “Why New Zealand took itself out of ANZUS: Observing ‘Opposition for Autonomy’ in Asymmetric Alliances,” Foreign Policy Analysis 6 (2010): 317-338.

16 Trust and Fellowship Grants, Department of Internal Affairs, accessed June 11, 2018.

17 Wade Huntley, “The kiwi that roared: Nuclear-free New Zealand in a nuclear-armed world,” The Nonproliferation Review 4 (1996): 1-16,

18 Interview with Laurie Ross on July 17, 2018.

19 “8 June 2017 is the 30th anniversary of New Zealand's iconic nuclear free zone law”, nuclearfreenz.org.nz, accessed on September 18, 2019.

20 “New Zealand and the new treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons”, Alyn Ware Official Website.