By MAJ Kiely Pepper and Dr Peter Greener
Lectures, academic assignments and critical analysis at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Command and Staff College (CSC) prepare course members for their military future. Application of this knowledge and skills was strengthened through a recent visit to Singapore and India.
The official delegation was led by Brigadier Mark Wheeler and included Senior Staff College and Warrant Officer Advanced Course Members, representatives from other Government agencies, and New Zealand Defence Force staff. In both Singapore and India, high calibre presenters delivered informative and thought-provoking briefings from a wide variety of perspectives, which helped to broaden our view of their national and international issues.
International presenters represented:
- Ministry of Defence and other government departments
- military commands
- defence industries
- academic institutions
- media, and
- health and business industries.
The strategic outlook and strategic challenges facing each country were clearly laid out. India’s strategic position in particular contrasted sharply with that of New Zealand. These strategic differences were emphasised by the size of their military forces— a 56,000 strong Navy, an Army of over one million soldiers, and 170,000 in the Air Force—representative of their larger population.
The profound challenges facing India—internally as well as externally—were addressed, yet some of India’s difficulties were hard to visualise. For example, a paediatrician and co-founder of a community health and development organisation for slum dwellers explained the challenges of improving health, living and employment conditions for 350,000 Delhi urban poor, where the residential concentration of people is 10,000 per hectare.
We were also urged to consider the political difficulties of governing over a billion people, particularly when 55% of them live on less than USD2 a day.
This tour helped to highlight the strategies, concerns, innovations, successes, and challenges that Singapore and India face. Equally, it made us compare and critically consider New Zealand’s own issues and how countries can learn from each other. A very busy programme ensured we made the most of the unique opportunity to really try to begin to understand the context, psyche, and core of these Asian nations.
We look forward to continuing to work closely with our Singaporean friends and to developing closer working relationships with our Indian friends in the future.
Overseas Study Tour
An annual Overseas Study Tour is part of the syllabus at CSC
It has a threefold purpose:
- to help us to understand our regional partners better
- to consider the international relations trends in the Asia-Pacific region, and
- to contribute to defence diplomacy.