Acta Politica Polonica

The aim of the article is to present the New Zealand Armed Forces (NZDF) as an instrument of New Zealand’s foreign policy, especially in terms of its role in playing the role of a good international citizen.. Therefore, the main research question is: What are the tasks and activities carried out by the NZDF in military operations abroad in the mid-third decade of the 21st century? Auxiliary questions include: 1) How is the role of a good international citizen defined?; 2) What are themain assumptions of New Zealand’s foreign policy?; 3) What is the place of the armed forces in the assumptions of foreign policy?; Considering this, the main research assumption is that the NZDF constitutes an instrument of New Zealand’s foreign policy, which is used by this country to play the role of a good international citizen, as will be proven. In order to answer these questions, a number of documents on the NZDF, New Zealand’s foreign and defence policy were analysed, with their content examined using a realistic approach to international relations. Therefore, the following research methods are applied: behavioural, decision-making, institutional, as well as quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content of documents. The necessary literature on the subject was also used, primarily works of New Zealand scholars dealing with the issues, e.g. Robert Ayson or Beth K. Greener. All this made it possible to establish that the NZDF is an instrument for New Zealand to play the role of a good international citizen during the analysed period, and will continue to be so in the near future.