Anna Fifield

Kia ora, this is The Detail, I'm Anna Fifield, and today we're talking about this extraordinary moment of geopolitical volatility and how we, here in Aotearoa New Zealand, should be adapting to it.

There's the unpredictable US President, of course, there's a rising China, old rules are being broken, new coalitions are forming.

This is how Singapore's Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong, describes it.

Thank you to Nairi Woods.

This episode was produced by Alexia Russell and engineered by Phil Benj.

I'm Anna Fifield.

I'll be back next Saturday, but in the meantime, you can read my work on foreign affairs in the Between Giants newsletter.

Mā te wā.

Indeed, we should.

So Anna F- on the, uh, discussion we had last week with Anna Fifield on AI, Gordon says, "I found the discussion with Anna about AI pretty interesting.

Whatever other concerns we may have about AI, I'm most concerned that AI is being programmed by humans who believe that their motivations are what they think and feel, rather than what their actions say and suggest.

For instance, in civil war, could we find AI programmed to work against, quotes, 'Anyone not like me,' turning on its, on its creators? Let's hope that the discussion remains entirely theoretical, but we certainly should be discussing it."

Kia ora, I'm Anna Fifield, and today on The Detail, we're turning to the West Bank, where Israeli settlers are forcing Palestinians out of their homes and off their land.

Israeli settlers have entered the village and surrounded the Abu Alia family home.

We're just watching settlers come into the village here in Amaraya.

This Saturday episode is made with funding from the Peter M. Ackland Foundation.

Thank you to Jerry Shee and Dahlia Shenlin.

This episode was produced by Anna Thomas and engineered by William Saunders.

I'm Anna Fifield.

I'll be back here next Saturday, but in the meantime, you can read my foreign affairs newsletter, Between Giants.

It is time for our regulant segment here on Knights, looking at foreign policy and global power shifts and New Zealand's place in the world.

Anna Fifield is our guest, experienced journalist, foreign affairs commentator, author, and the writer behind The Substack Between Giants.

Now, ordinarily, Anna and I... talk about every fortnight a wide range of local and international topics, but tonight we're dedicating the whole slot to one person, and that one person is Winston Peters, because Anna has written a really, truly superb magazine-length profile of Winston Peters on her sub-stack, looking at his three terms as Foreign Minister, how the international world's changed over that time, how our perspectives as a nation, his perspectives, have changed over that time as well, and so I'm delighted to welcome back Anna Fifield.

Kia ora to you, nice to have you on.

Kia ora, Emil.

past.

There we go.

Anna Fifield.

It's certainly the, the dramas, Anxiety Central is what I'd say.

But look, someone who's really been thinking a lot about this and is perfectly, uh, positioned to help us work our way through it is a veteran international correspondent, now independent journalist, Anna Fifield.

Uh, welcoming you again from New Zealand.

Hi there, Anna.

We've, we've seen him playing Trump really well, um, and playing a weak hand well.

You're listening to Global Rhyming.

From ABC Radio National, Geraldine Doogue is here, Hamish Macdonald as well, and we're speaking to foreign correspondent Anna Fifield, uh, who's with us from across the ditch.

Anna, I've actually been dying to talk to you for the last few weeks about this Pacific Island Leaders Forum that kinda didn't go to plan, and there was all sorts of, uh, argument and commentary, suggestions that China was deliberately messing with the lead-up to this forum.

This week must be about prioritizing the work the Pacific needs, work that secures the future, our people, our islands, and our ocean.

I'm Anna Fifield, and today on The Detail, we're looking at how great power politics are playing out in our backyard.

And over the last 10 years, and this has become an area of increased attention because as the United States has paid episodic attention, others have keyed into the region too, primarily China, which actually exercises and excites how Americans think about this, but others too.

So all of a sudden it, it's kind of moved from peripheral to increasingly closer to the center of how America thinks about not the world, but certainly the Indo-Pacific region.

Thank you to Sam Sachdeva and Charles Eddel.

This episode was produced by Anna Thomas and engineered by Mark Chesterman.

I'm Anna Fifield, and you can read my work on foreign affairs in my Between Giants newsletter.

But I'll be back here at The Detail next Saturday.

Time then for our regular segment here on Nights, looking at global policy, foreign policy, I should say, and global power shifts and New Zealand's place in the world.

And so joining us on the line, as happens every four nights on Nights, we have Anna Fifield, who is a journalist, current foreign affairs commentator, author, and whose sub-stack, whose excellent sub-stack is called Between Giants, and who is on the line now.

Anna, kia ora to you.

Welcome to the show.

I mean, it just shows how much of this comes down to political will and political spine, I guess, and the willingness to take this kind of tack.

Fascinating stuff.

Anna Fifield, thanks very much, as always, and we'll catch you again in a fortnight.

Can't wait.