Will building an integrated ‘Anzac force’ with Australia cost NZ strategic freedom?

Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images As New Zealand embarks on its largest defence build-up in decades, two questions loom: how closely should it integrate with Australia’s military and how much should it spend? While New Zealand has committed to lifting defence spending from just over 1% of GDP to 2% over the next decade, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently accused the country of “freeloading” as a partner, arguing at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue that even 2% was “not enough”. Instead, he said,…