Conceptualizing Utu as a Foreign Policy Doctrine for Aotearoa New Zealand

During Nanaia Mahuta's tenure as New Zealand's Foreign Minister (2020-2023), Aotearoa New Zealand experimented with a foreign policy guided by four tikanga (M & amacr;ori customary practices), namely, manaakitanga (hospitality), whanaungatanga (connectedness), mahi tahi and kotahitanga (unity through collaboration), and kaitiakitanga (intergenerational guardianship). However, despite a clear rhetorical increase in the use of M & amacr;ori perspectives, in practice, New Zealand's foreign policymaking remained ontologically and epistemologically Western-centric. This paper argues that if New Zealand undertakes further experimentation with a M & amacr;ori foreign policy in the future, then embracing the M & amacr;ori concept of utu-broadly defined as the notion of balance through reciprocation-would provide a useful ontological and epistemological base. Using the case of the Whanganui River as a domestic example, an utu foreign policy is sketched out with an emphasis on harmony, mana, and reciprocity. Utu as a foreign policy doctrine would represent a radical departure from the status quo as it is both relational and non-anthropocentric-as opposed to Western-centric models that are anthropocentric and "scientific"-and would allow New Zealand to maintain its preference for independence as well as bringing the issue of climate change to the fore of its foreign policy.