“If New Zealand opts to remain in Five Eyes it should do so only on the basis that, at the bottom line, intelligence does not make foreign policy, it serves foreign policy; although in the case of the US, and of Australia, intelligence plainly carries the greater weight and has even (as witnessed in the 2004 attack on Iraq) been expediently concocted in ways to justify war. Five Eyes is not a formal alliance treaty; it is an expedient arrangement between intelligence agencies to exchange information. At times of intense rivalry between the great powers it should be no surprise that information shared by the US, given its robust rivalry with China, should reflect its compulsive priority. In those circumstances New Zealand should commit formally as well to widen exchanges of intelligence with Asia-Pacific partners.” The (global) response to COVID-19 cannot reinforce confidence that international cooperation will be readily secured unless a fundamental change of heart occurs in the emerging rivalry between the US and China. This is the space wherein New Zealand needs to retain evenhandedness and the essential logic of a distinctive small-power contribution of the kind displayed through its non-nuclear policy, which remains an eminently rational and respectable hallmark of New Zealand's approach towards foreign affairs.” Terence O’Brien (NZ Diplomat) - Consolations of Insignificance