The difference between power and influence has been a topic of debate for decades. Last year, Australia led an international peace-enforcement mission to East Timor and demonstrated a considerable military clout in the region. By any objective criterion, it is far more formidable a power than New Zealand. Australia's population is five times bigger, its economy six times bigger and its defense capability is similarly more robust. Yet arguably, over the past few years New Zealand has been the more influential of the trans-Tasman twins in world affairs.