Dr Ian McGibbon is a senior historian in the History Group, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington, New Zealand. A graduate of Victoria University of Wellington, he has written or edited eight books on aspects of New Zealand's international relations or defence. These include the two-volume official history of New Zealand's involvement in the Korean War, and two books on defence policy in the period 1840-1942. He edited the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History (2000) and has recently published New Zealand Battlefields and Memorials of the Western Front. In 1997 he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to historical research.