On paper, New Zealand is one of America’s four closest allies. In practice, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern isn’t quite the friend one might hope for in a dangerous world in which Russia and China are all too eager to flex their muscles.

Alongside Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States, New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. A bastion of the post-World War II, rule-of-law-based democratic international order, the alliance involves the cooperation and sharing of highly sensitive intelligence material. This is the intelligence inner circle of the good guys.