New Zealand expended considerable effort in producing its official history of the Second World War, the last volume of which was published in 1986.

This delayed efforts to record the country's contributions to the postwar conflicts in which it was involved, such as the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953.

[1] The first volume of the series, titled Politics & Diplomacy, was published in 1992 with a print run of 500 copies.

It provided a detailed account of New Zealand's foreign and defence policies leading to the decision to commit Kayforce to Korea and how the conflict affected domestic affairs.

When it was released, W. David McIntyre described Politics & Diplomacy as being "the best book written so far on New Zealand's external affairs".