Robert Ayson

Biography
Publications

Robert Ayson is Professor of Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington where he works in association with the Centre for Strategic Studies. He has held academic positions with the Australian National University, Massey University and the University of Waikato, and official positions in Wellington with the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee and the External (now National) Assessments Bureau. He has written books on two of the twentieth century's leading thinkers in strategic studies and international relations, Hedley Bull and Thomas Schelling, and has also published on Asia-Pacific regional security, nuclear issues and New Zealand and Australian defence and security policy. 

The Australia-New Zealand alliance in a war with China
The Australia-New Zealand alliance in a war with China
The potential for conflict in the region should have Canberra and Wellington thinking about shared strategic risks.
Jacinda Ardern’s foreign policy legacy
Jacinda Ardern’s foreign policy legacy
Major shocks set an agenda and catapulted New Zealand’s youngest ever Prime Minister to international attention.
If Russia breaks the nuclear taboo
If Russia breaks the nuclear taboo
Would the use of a lower yield atomic weapon really prompt the same catastrophic logic of escalation?
What does Biden mean on Taiwan?
What does Biden mean on Taiwan?
When Washington doesn’t speak with one voice, its powers of strategic ambiguity are slowly chipped away.
New Zealand: No longer Australia’s Pacific security partner?
New Zealand: No longer Australia’s Pacific security partner?
Wellington has appeared slow to respond to a crisis in Solomon Islands where once it would have been a regional leader.
Imprisoning narratives: Morrison, Ardern and China
Imprisoning narratives: Morrison, Ardern and China
Had Jacinda Ardern employed Scott Morrison’s “one country, two systems” language, all hell would have broken loose.
Allies but not friends? New Zealand and Australia
Allies but not friends? New Zealand and Australia
Trans-Tasman tensions have boiled up over a citizenship case, but this latest spat betrays deeper problems.
How to China, from your friends in New Zealand
How to China, from your friends in New Zealand
A trade minister goes on record going way off script.
Why did the NZ Opposition Leader jump the shark on China?
Why did the NZ Opposition Leader jump the shark on China?
National is partying like its 2008 and playing domestic politics without a care to the cost.
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