New Zealand’s geographic isolation has largely shielded it from major terrorist events. It has not experienced a major terrorist attack inspired by Islamic extremism while the few terror attacks in the country have been largely—though not entirely—related to protests. Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, New Zealand has passed legislation to expand its definition of terrorism and empower its intelligence and security services to combat domestic extremism. In the aftermath of the March 2019 Christchurch attack, however, the government was criticized for focusing too much on Islamic extremism while ignoring the rise of the far right. In response to the March 15, 2019, Christchurch attack, the government banned military-style semiautomatic weapons and sought to identify and disrupt violent extremist content across digital channels. The attack also sparked a review of hate speech laws. (Sources: Financial Times, Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera, New Zealand Herald)

Historically, New Zealand has had state-sanctioned racism toward the aboriginal Maori people and other—largely non-white—minorities. The Maori faced discrimination from European settlers arriving in the 19th century out of a belief of cultural superiority. These attitudes also affected Asian immigrants and resulted in widespread social discrimination. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, New Zealand passed laws restricting non-white immigration and limited the rights of minorities. By the 1960s, however, South Asian immigrants seeking work began to integrate into New Zealand and attitudes largely shifted by 1975. (Sources: New Republic, New Zealand History, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

Despite the wider societal acceptance of non-white immigrants, white nationalist groups still developed in New Zealand during the latter half of the 20th century. New Zealand authorities, however, considered the threat from these groups to be low and did not track domestic hate crimes. On March 15, 2019, gunman Brenton Tarrant killed 51 and wounded dozens of others at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch in the country’s deadliest terror attack to date. Tarrant authored a manifesto in which he promoted a white nationalist theory called the Great Replacement, which posits that non-white migrants are threatening to replace the dominant European—i.e., white—culture. The theory is shared by white nationalists around the world. Tarrant wrote that he could no longer stand by while witnessing a so-called European genocide. Police have sought to create tracking mechanisms for hate crimes in the aftermath of the Christchurch attack. (Sources: BBC News, BBC News, NPR, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Stuff)

Compared to 12 other nations polled on security concerns by global IT company Unisys, New Zealanders are relatively unconcerned by the threat of terrorism. The survey found that 51 percent of New Zealanders were seriously concerned about war or terrorism after the Christchurch attack, an increase from 29 percent before the attack. New Zealand ranked third-least concerned about terrorism in both polls. Unisys also recorded that 80 percent of New Zealanders believe social media companies are responsible for monitoring and removing hate speech and other inflammatory content. (Source: Unisys)

Far-Right Extremism

New Zealand has struggled with white nationalism against the indigenous Maori people since the country’s founding. The Maori faced discrimination from European settlers arriving in the 19th century out of a belief of cultural superiority. This resulted in land confiscations, wage discrimination, and social discrimination. These attitudes also affected Asian immigrants, particularly Chinese foreign workers who migrated in the 19th century during the gold rush years. New Zealand’s proximity to Asia made migration more attractive for those looking for work, but New Zealanders largely saw Asian immigration as a threat to the burgeoning white society, in line with attitudes in neighboring Australia. In 1899, one Australian parliamentarian called for maintaining “a pure Australian Blood, or a pure British blood, or a pure British and European blood….” Beginning in 1899, New Zealand began instituting laws barring non-white immigrants from obtaining citizenship. The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act of 1920 required immigrants to apply for a permanent residence permit before arriving in New Zealand, but the act barred non-white British subjects from entering the country. The law became known as the White New Zealand policy. Beginning in the 1950s, however, New Zealand saw an influx of Pacific Islanders, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Thais. By 1971, 30 percent of the country’s foreign-born immigrants were non-white. Non-white immigrants and the aboriginal Maori gained wider acceptance. The Race Relations Act of 1971 prohibited discrimination based on race, nationality, or ethnic origin. In 1975, New Zealand symbolically ended its policy of assisted immigration from Great Britain. (Sources: Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, New Republic, New Zealand History, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

Despite the societal shift in New Zealand, anti-immigrant and anti-minority attitudes did not disappear. In the late 1960s, two foreign-born fascist organizations took root in New Zealand. The National Front emerged in 1967 as a local chapter of the British fascist National Front organization. In 1969, the Nazi-inspired National Socialist White People’s Party emerged. Both groups viewed immigration and multiculturalism as threats to the white identity of New Zealand. In the 1980s, other white supremacist groups began to assert themselves. Groups included the White Defence League, New Order, the European Liberation Front, New Force, the New Zealand–Rhodesia Society, and Friends of South Africa. These groups defended the apartheid regime in South Africa, promoted the notion of a global Jewish conspiracy, and opposed Maori rights. (Source: Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

Beginning in approximately 2017, a new alt-right white nationalist movement began to take root in New Zealand around the idea of a central European identity that was under threat. Groups began to emerge at the country’s universities warning of white genocide and cultural Marxism, the theory that Marxists have infiltrated Western society in order to destroy it from within with concepts like feminism and multiculturalism. In March 2017 at Auckland University, a group called Western Guard plastered campus with posters demanding white rights. So-called white rights groups Auckland University’s European Students Association and the NZ European Association also emerged on campus. The groups promoted anti-immigration and white nationalist policies but claimed to be non-violent. In July 2018, officials in Auckland canceled an upcoming event featuring Canadian speakers Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux. Southern was previously barred from the United Kingdom. The Auckland Council said the cancellation was on safety and security grounds. (Sources: Stuff, New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald)

On March 15, 2019, gunman Brenton Tarrant killed 51 and wounded dozens more in attacks on the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch in the worst terror attack in New Zealand’s history. Tarrant subscribed to the white nationalist philosophy of the Great Replacement, which alleges that the European—i.e., white—race is threatened by immigration from non-Europeans. He wrote in his manifesto that the attack would “show the invaders that our lands will never be their lands.” Tarrant was arrested on his way to a third target. He has been charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism. He was the first person in New Zealand to be charged under anti-terrorism laws passed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In March 2020, Tarrant pled guilty to 91 charges of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism. That August, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. (Sources: Sydney Morning Herald, Washington Post, New York Times, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, New York Times)

In December 2020, an independent commission published an 800-page report that examined whether the authorities could have prevented the massacre. The report concluded that although New Zealand’s security agencies did not thoroughly monitor white supremacist threats, the massacre was not able to be prevented. Despite the report’s findings, on October 21, 2021, New Zealand’s chief coroner, Judge Deborah Marshall, announced that she had begun a fresh investigation into the 2019 Christchurch attacks. The inquiry originally investigated the details surrounding deaths that were not fully resolved by previous investigations. Despite Marshall’s ongoing investigation, on November 7, 2021, media sources reported that Tarrant was considering appealing his life sentence. According to Tarrant’s lawyer, Tarrant pled guilty under duress. Reportedly, while in New Zealand custody, Tarrant was “subject to inhuman or degrading treatment whilst on remand…[which] prevented a fair trial.” A year later, on November 8, 2022, Tarrant appealed his conviction and sentence, however, a hearing is not immediately set. He later applied for a judicial review of his prison conditions on April 19, 2023. The exact conditions Tarrant sought to have reviewed are not reported, however, Tarrant is currently held at the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit within Auckland Prison. As of March 2024, further information on his appeal and review have not been reported.  (Sources: New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, Guardian, New Zealand Herald, BBC News)

On May 4, 2022, New Zealand Coroner Brigitte Windley—who took over Marshall’s October 2021 investigation—announced the topics she would pursue in the inquiry. Among the topics investigated are the role social media played in radicalizing Tarrant, if he acted alone, how he obtained a firearms license and if the method of procuring weapons could be directly linked to the attack, and how emergency services responded to the attack. In regard to Tarrant’s online activities, Windley focused on the period between 2014 and 2017, before he moved to New Zealand from Australia and began planning the attack. The inquest opened on October 24, 2023, but Windley is expected to publish some of her findings in 2024. (Sources: Guardian, 7 News, Guardian)

In March 2020, a week before the first anniversary of the Christchurch attack, police charged a man in connection with a photo circulating online of a masked man doing surveillance on the Al Noor mosque. The individual was linked to the white nationalist group Action Zealandia, which formed in July 2019 to build what it calls “a community for European New Zealanders.” The group refers to itself as a nationalist youth movement and calls on supporters to engage in nationalist activities. The group also prides itself on environmentalism and community building. Nonetheless, Action Zealandia is firmly committed to white supremacist ideals. Echoing the Great Replacement theory touted by Tarrant, Action Zealandia claims the “New Zealand European identity” is under threat from demographic replacement brought on by corporations and businesses importing foreign labor. The group limits membership to men only as it calls itself a fraternal organization. (Sources: New York Times, Reuters, Twitter, Action Zealandia, Action Zealandia, Action Zealandia, Action Zealandia)

Action Zealandia disavowed the individual linked to the threats against Al Noor. The group specifically said it does not follow other conservatives in declaring Islam as a whole to be the “absolute enemy” and rejects violence. In February 2020, Facebook removed the group’s page. Action Zealandia remained active on Twitter and Telegram. The group accuses social media companies of limiting free speech and silencing dissidents. (Sources: Twitter, Twitter, Action Zealandia)

Antisemitism

New Zealand does not have a major history of antisemitism. According to surveys of the Jewish community, New Zealand’s Jewish community has not felt an antisemitic backlash since at least the 1980s. Nonetheless, there have been antisemitic movements grew in New Zealand in the mid-20th century. In the 1950s, an antisemitic political party called Social Credit emerged based on the Social Credit movement founded in the early part of the century by a Canadian named Clifford Hugh Douglas. Social Credit is an economic theory that posits the current economic system does not allow workers to afford the goods and services they produce and thus needs to be reformed. Douglas also believed in a global Jewish conspiracy to control the world financial system, and this informed the beliefs of the Social Credit movement in New Zealand through the 1970s when the party began to reform under new leadership. (Sources: Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Social Credit)

Social Credit inspired a new organization out of Australia called the League of Rights, which promoted conspiracies based on the antisemitic Russian forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. A New Zealand chapter emerged in 1970. The organization had approximately 1,000 members at its height in the 1970s, but it had largely disintegrated by the 1990s due to an aging membership. (Sources: Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington)

Islamic Extremism

New Zealand has had a small number of Islamic extremists supporting al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other Islamic extremist groups. The country has not experienced an Islamist-inspired terrorist attack.

In November 2014, Maori Muslim Te Amorangi Izhaq Kireka-Whaanga, leader of the Aotearoa Maori Muslim Association, announced his support for ISIS. He claimed that he is not a violent man but wanted to travel to Syria with his family. His ex-wife told New Zealand media that the Muslim community did not support him or ISIS. In June 2016, Imran Patel became the first New Zealander to be imprisoned for possessing and distributing extremist propaganda. Patel was released on parole in 2018 after authorities determined he no longer posed a threat. In 2018, a New Zealand court sentenced an unidentified teenager from Christchurch to intensive supervision for planning a vehicular ramming attack, which he ultimately did not carry out. The teen reportedly radicalized online. The teen told the court he had “done it for Allah.” (Sources: New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald)

New Zealand has liberal free speech laws and has had some reports of abuses in mosques, while New Zealand’s Federation of Islamic Associations has condemned all forms of hate speech. In November 2016, a video emerged of Shaykh Dr. Mohammad Anwar Sahib of the At Taqwa Mosque in Manukau, Auckland, giving multiple sermons between 2014 and 2016 in which he used antisemitic and homophobic language. Sahib denied all allegations but stepped down from the mosque. New Zealand’s Human Rights Commission condemned the speeches as appalling. (Sources: At Taqwa Trust, Shalom Kiwi, New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald)

Foreign Fighters

Up to two dozen New Zealanders have traveled abroad to become foreign fighters since 2014, according to estimates in the country. In 2015, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Services identified a growing trend of women traveling to Syria to become jihadi brides. The brides all left from Australia, according to authorities. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said in March 2019 that jihadi brides should be allowed to return to face the consequences of their actions. New Zealand does not have any mechanisms in place to revoke the citizenship of foreign fighters. As of December 2018, however, at least eight New Zealanders had their passports revoked. In November 2019, authorities reported a “small number” of New Zealanders still overseas fighting alongside foreign terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. (Sources: Guardian, Newstalk ZB, Stuff, New Zealand Herald)

New Zealand’s most notorious foreign fighter is Mark Taylor, a.k.a. Muhammad Daniel and Abu Abdul-Rahman. Media dubbed the U.S.-designated Taylor the “bumbling jihadist” because he accidently tweeted out his location multiple times. In 2009, Taylor visited New Zealand foreign fighter Daryl Jones, a.k.a. Muslim bin John, in Yemen. Jones was killed in a November 2013 drone strike alongside Australian militant Christopher Harvard while fighting for al-Qaeda. Taylor traveled to Syria in 2014. He displayed his burnt New Zealand passport in a Facebook post in June 2014 and declared he would never return. He later reportedly applied for a replacement. In December 2018, the Syrian Democratic Forces took Taylor into custody. New Zealand authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in October 2019, which would result in Taylor’s arrest at the border if he attempts to return to New Zealand. (Sources: Guardian, Guardian, Newshub, New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald, New Zealand Herald)

The New Zealand government has expanded its focus on terrorism since the September 11, 2001, attacks. In 2002, the New Zealand police created the Strategic Intelligence Unit (SIU) to provide intelligence on domestic and international security. The SIU joined with the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to investigate and combat terrorist threats in the country. Over the years, the government has passed legislation to expand the authority of the security agencies and address emerging threats. (Source: Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

International Terrorism (Emergency Powers) Act 1987

In 1987, New Zealand instituted the International Terrorism (Emergency Powers) Act in response to the 1985 sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by French secret service agents. The act allows the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in response to an international terrorist incident with the support of at least three ministers. The state of emergency grants the government emergency powers for seven days. Parliament must then vote to extend the emergency powers to the government. The act defines an international terrorist incident as one involving actions, or threats of actions, to kill or injure people or seriously damage property in order to coerce or intimidate a government or person. (Sources: Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office)

Terrorism Suppression Act 2002

The New Zealand parliament passed the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The act defines a terrorist act as one intended to induce terror in a civilian population or compel a government or international organization to do or abstain from any act. The act also brought New Zealand into compliance with U.N. anti-terrorist conventions and resolutions. The act also expanded the government’s definitions of terrorism and allowed the prime minister to designate organizations as terrorists and freeze their assets. Under the law, groups can be labeled as terrorists if they have participated in terrorist acts. The act also outlawed participation in and recruitment for terrorist groups, as well as providing financial assistance to terrorists. (Sources: New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

Counter Terrorism Bill 2003

In 2003, the New Zealand government passed the Counter Terrorism Bill to expand investigation of and penalties against terrorism. The bill criminalized harboring terrorists and expanded terrorism offenses to include improper use of nuclear material or unmarked plastic explosives, contamination of food crops, and causing sickness or disease in animals. The bill also expanded police powers to gather intelligence through tracking devices and computer access. (Sources: New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office, Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand)

Intelligence and Security Act 2017

The Intelligence and Security Act 2017 revamped New Zealand’s intelligence services. The act created new definitions of national security and redefined how the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau address national security. Specifically, the act addresses how the intelligence agencies obtain warrants and brings both agencies under a single set of regulations. (Sources: New Zealand Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office)

2021 Terrorism Law Expansion

On September 30, 2021, the government passed a new bill to expand New Zealand’s terrorism law to criminalize plotting a terror attack and expand the authority of police. Under the new law, planning a terrorist attack can carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. The law also criminalized travel to or from New Zealand for combat training for a terrorist attack or to implement an attack. Further, the expansion granted police the authority to enter, search, and surveil without warrants while investigating the planning and preparation of terrorist acts. The expansion closed a legal loophole that had been exposed during an ISIS-related stabbing attack earlier that month. On September 3, 2021, Sri Lankan national Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen stabbed seven people in an Auckland supermarket before he was shot dead by police. Police initially arrested Samsudeen in 2017 as he tried to leave the country for Syria. In 2018, he bought a large hunting knife and was found in possession of ISIS videos. Samsudeen remained in prison on various other charges and violating bail conditions. In May 2021, a court found him guilty of possessing objectionable videos, but a judge later ruled that New Zealand’s existing terrorism laws did not include possible plots and found no legal justification to hold him. Samsudeen was released from prison in July 2021 and placed under surveillance. Police followed him for 53 days prior to the September 3 attack. (Sources: Reuters, Associated Press, Associated Press, Guardian)

AML/CFT

New Zealand authorities have not seen confirmed evidence of terrorist financing in the country and thus consider the risk in New Zealand to be low. Nonetheless, the government has enacted anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation. Parliament passed the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Terrorist Financing Act 2009 to create mechanisms for the supervision, monitoring, and enforcement of AML/CFT under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Financial Markets Authority, and the Department of Internal Affairs. The act created requirements for reporting entities to engage in due diligence, account monitoring, reporting suspicious activity, and other requirements. It also imposed civil and criminal penalties. The act came into full effect in June 2013. (Sources: New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office, Reserve Bank New Zealand, FATF)

New Zealand is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). A 2009 FATF assessment deemed New Zealand’s AML/CFT precautions to be “robust,” but found multiple discrepancies with FATF guidelines. A 2013 follow-up found that New Zealand had made enough adjustments to its procedures to justify removing the country from the follow-up process. In response to the FATF recommendations, New Zealand implemented multiple preventative measures, created a supervisory framework headed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Financial Markets Authority, and the Department of Internal Affairs; created a cross-border cash reporting system; and strengthened its registration and licensing procedures for the financial and insurance sectors. (Sources: FATF, FATF)

New Zealand authorities are also reportedly concerned with terror financing by white nationalists. In March 2020, white nationalists in New Zealand shared online a leaked memo from the New Zealand Police Financial Intelligence Unit to the nation’s banking industry to be on guard against terror financing. According to the memo, the police are aware of several transactions “common in the extreme right-wing community.” Police declared distribution of the document to be illegal. Nonetheless, white nationalist groups such as Action Zealandia declared they would continue to share the document. (Sources: New Zealand Herald, Twitter)

Response to Foreign Fighters

In December 2014, the government passed the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Act, which gave the government authority to suspend or cancel passports. As of December 2018, the government had canceled at least eight passports. According to the Security Intelligence Service, the individuals posed a national security threat. In December 2019, the New Zealand parliament passed the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill in response to the threat posed by returning foreign fighters. The law allows authorities to implement control orders on returning foreign fighters, such as electronic monitoring or rehabilitation. According to officials, the control orders will be tailored to the individual. (Sources: Library of Congress, RNZ, New Zealand Herald, Scoop)

Response to Christchurch

A week after the March 15, 2019, attack on two mosques in Christchurch, the New Zealand government moved to ban military-style semiautomatic weapons, assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines. The legislation passed that April. New Zealand police also reported after the attack that they intended to better track hate crimes in the country, which had no separate classification for hate crimes and thus no separate record of them. Police sought to create tracking mechanism for hate crimes in the aftermath of the Christchurch attack. The attack also prompted a government review of hate speech laws. (Sources: Wall Street Journal, CNN, Stuff, Stuff, New Zealand Herald)

The Christchurch attack raised concerns among government officials over how law enforcement did not anticipate the attack. Analysts in New Zealand suggested that security forces had been so focused on the threat of Islamic extremism that they overlooked the threat of far-right extremism. Five major New Zealand media companies agreed in May 2019 to limit their coverage of Tarrant’s trial to avoid disseminating his ideology. New Zealand police increased their patrols around mosques ahead of the first anniversary of the Christchurch attack. The government also announced plans to create a new unit to focus on online extremism. In October 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the formation of a team of 17 investigators to identify and disrupt violent extremist content across digital channels. The team would be housed in New Zealand’s internal affairs department. (Sources: Financial Times, Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera)

Christchurch Call

Founded in the wake of the March 15, 2019, Christchurch mosque attacks, Christchurch Call is a global initiative working across governments, the tech sector, and civil society to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. It includes more than 130 governments, online service providers, and civil society organizations. Following the deadly Christchurch shootings on March 15, 2019, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron hosted tech CEOs at a summit of world leaders at the first Christchurch Call to Action Summit in Paris on May 15, 2019. The summit culminated in the Christchurch Call to Action pledge, under which signatories would aim to “end the use of social media for acts of terrorism.” The community of governments and online service providers who committed to the pledge continue to gather for annual summits and leaders’ meetings. At the second Christchurch Call to Action summit on May 14, 2021, Ardern and Macron hosted an online meeting of world leaders and technology company executives. The United States also joined in the meeting, which included discussions of better ways to stop extremist violence from spreading online while also respecting freedom of expression. Among the topics discussed, Ardern stated that part of the solution requires equipping younger generations of Internet users to better deal with and prevent the response to radical content and disinformation online. (Sources: New Zealand Government, Christchurch Call, Christchurch Call, CNN, New York Times, Voice of America, Associated Press)

At the 2023 summit, held on November 10, 2023, in Paris, leaders issued a joint statement restating their commitment to promoting effective global approaches to eliminating terrorist and violent extremist content online while engaging with civil society. Leaders of the Christchurch Call noted that it took tech companies 30 minutes to remove the livestream of the Christchurch attacks in 2019, but the May 2022 attack in Buffalo, New York, came down within two minutes. The Christchurch Call leaders credited the quicker response to the incident protocols they developed to coordinate efforts across governments and tech platforms. (Sources:  Christchurch Call, Christchurch Call, Christchurch Call)

Following her January 2023 resignation, former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was appointed as special envoy for the Christchurch Call on April 4, 2023. According to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, Ardern’s position will reportedly “push for greater protection online from terrorist and violent extremist content.” (Sources: New Zealand Government,  Politico)

International Cooperation

New Zealand is a member of multiple international and regional counterterrorism organizations. New Zealand is a member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and the Global Counter Terrorism Forum. New Zealand has also coordinated with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the East Asia Summit (EAS) in annual meetings on counterterrorism and transnational crime. In August 2018, New Zealand participated in the Five Country Ministerial with Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Senior officials from the participating countries met to discuss current and emerging threats. New Zealand also belongs to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). (Sources: FATF, U.S. Department of State)

Peacekeeping Operations

New Zealand actively participates in international peacekeeping operations. Since 1948, New Zealand has participated in more than 40 U.N. peacekeeping operations in more than 25 countries. (Sources: New Zealand Foreign Affairs & Trade, New Zealand Defence Force,

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contributes soldiers to:

• Afghanistan: New Zealand first sent forces in 2001 to support the NATO mission to uproot the Taliban. Since 2013, the Defence Force has contributed personnel to the Afghan national Army Officer Academy to mentor and support the development of Afghan National Security Forces as part of Operation Resolute Support. In June 2019, New Zealand decreased its deployment to Afghanistan from 13 to 11 soldiers and extended the mission until December 2020. (Sources: New Zealand Defence Force, Scoop)
• Combined Maritime Forces (CMF): The CMF is a multinational naval partnership to promote security and stabilization in international waters. New Zealand contributes two staff officers to the CMF headquarters in Bahrain. (Source: New Zealand Defence Force)
• Multinational Force and Observers (MFO): New Zealand has contributed forces to the MFO since its creation in 1982 to ensure the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. New Zealand contributes up to 25 personnel annually. (Source: New Zealand Defence Force)
• Iraq: New Zealand is a member of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. The NZDF contributes personnel to the combined New Zealand and Australia Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission in Iraq to train Iraqi Security Forces for combat and stabilization operations. New Zealand does not have any combat roles in Iraq. (Sources: New Zealand Defence Force, Operation Inherent Resolve)
• United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO): UNTSO is the U.N. peacekeeping mission to maintain truces between Israel and its neighbors. Since 1954, the NZDF has contributed personnel to oversee truces between Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. (Sources: UNTSO, New Zealand Defence Force)
• United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA): In March 2018, the NZDF committed one soldier to serving an intelligence role for the period of one year. (Source: New Zealand Defence Force)
• Mutual Assistance Programme (MAP): MAP is an international program to provide training, technical, and other support to South Pacific and Southeast Asian security and defense forces. The NZDF provides skills and professional development training to MAP personnel. (Source: New Zealand Defence Force)
• U.N. Command & Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC): UNCMAC maintains the armistice between North Korea and South Korea. NZDF contributes six personnel annually to U.N. Command in the Republic of Korea to train South Korean forces and serve in the demilitarized zone. (Source: New Zealand Defence Force)
• U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS): UNMISS was established in 2011 to consolidate peace and security and enable the government of South Sudan to assume its functions. The NZDF contributes multiple personnel to the mission. (Source: New Zealand Defence Force)
• Operation Gallant Phoenix: Operation Gallant Phoenix is a U.S.-led multinational information sharing and intelligence mission based in Jordan to combat the threat of extremism in Iraq. New Zealand has contributed personnel since 2014. (Sources: New York Times, New Zealand Defence Force)

New Zealand-based Horizon Research conducted a poll of 3,200,000 adults in December 2015 in the aftermath of the November Paris attacks. The poll asked security-related questions based on a scale of one to 10. The poll found that 12 percent (384,000 people) completely disagreed with a statement that New Zealand is less at risk of a terrorist attack than other countries, while 9 percent (287,000) completely agreed it is less at risk. The poll found that 14 percent (448,000) were very concerned that they or a member of their family would be hurt in a terror attack if one were to happen in New Zealand. Conversely, 12 percent (384,000) were not at all concerned about the possibility. Only 5 percent (160,000) thought a terror attack in New Zealand was “extremely likely,” while 8 percent (320,000) thought one was “extremely unlikely.” Only 4 percent felt “extremely unsafe” in New Zealand, while 13 percent reported feeling “extremely safe.” An additional 53 percent reported their safety levels as seven through nine, indicating relatively high feelings of security. (Source: Horizon Research)

The 2019 Unisys Security Index found that both prior to and after the March 2019 Christchurch attack New Zealand’s population ranked the third-least concerned about terrorism among 13 countries polled. In the aftermath of the Christchurch attack, global IT company Unisys recorded 51 percent of New Zealanders were seriously concerned about war or terrorism, an increase of 29 percent from before the attack. Concern rose to 58 percent in the Christchurch region specifically. Unisys also recorded that 80 percent of New Zealanders believe social media companies are responsible for monitoring and removing hate speech and other inflammatory content. Unisys also polled the United States, the Philippines, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia, Brazil, Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. (Source: Unisys)