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New Zealand is a founding member of the United Nations, having taken part in 1945 in the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. Since its formation, New Zealand has been actively engaged in the organisation. New Zealand sees the UN as a means of collective security, mainly in the South Pacific region, particularly because New Zealand is a relatively small nation and has very little control over much larger countries or significant events. The UN was also seen as a way of safe-guarding New Zealand, at the time, a somewhat fledgling country. The successor New Zealand governments also felt that the United Nations was an important ''political and military'' ally to have as it was an integral part of New Zealand's "Collective Security". Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has since April 2009 headed the United Nations Development Programme, making Clark the most senior New Zealander within the UN bureaucracy. ==History== New Zealand's membership of the United Nations as a founder was a considerable change in foreign policy, although strongly supported by the First Labour Government which in 1935 had ''a firm belief in the concept of collective security through the League of Nations''.〔McGibbon, I.C. (1981) Blue-Water Rationale:The Naval Defence of New Zealand 1914-1942 , page 256 (GP Print, Wellington, NZ) ISBN 0-477-01072-5〕 Previous governments had put all their political and military reliance in the "Mother Country" (the United Kingdom), and expressed reservations about particular policies privately. During the Second World War, New Zealand realized that it could no-longer rely on Britain to protect her. After the Royal Navy's defeat in the Pacific, New Zealand began searching for a way to increase security of its waters and people through mainly collective security arrangements. The Prime Minister of the time after the war Peter Fraser became actively involved in the creation of the United Nations. He believed that an organization such as the UN could be a place to solve international problems peacefully, ensure New Zealand a say in world affairs, protect the interests of small powers and ally her with major world powers like the United States (later reinforced by the ANZUS security agreement). Although on some issues Peter Fraser disagreed with fellow founding members over, especially on the creation of the United Nations Security Council, he was against giving major countries veto power, because it allowed one power to stop any action and would exclude smaller powers from having a say in world issues. He failed, the USA, USSR, UK and France (China not being a major power of the time) would not accept equal status with smaller countries. Fraser later quoted on the issue: "It is very bad if one nation can hold up the advancement of mankind". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New Zealand and the United Nations」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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