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November 22, 2024
 

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Ramesh Thakur

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Ramesh Thakur
Ramesh Thakur is Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; adjunct professor, Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law, Griffith University, and editor-in-chief of Global Governance from Jan. 1, 2013. He began writing for The Japan Times in 1998 as Vice Rector of the United Nations University.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2014
India's nuclear risks and costs
The inevitable conclusion that nuclear weapons cannot help India solve the problems of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition, and are irrelevant as security against any other country, should at least encourage India to champion the phased and verifiable goal of global nuclear disarmament.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2014
India's illusory nuclear gains
The subcontinent's history since 1998 belies expectations at the time, in both India and Pakistan, that the nuclearization of weapons would prove to be a largely stabilizing factor.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2014
Which way is the enemy?
As the West seems to be picking fights with several enemies simultaneously, there is the risk of the war on terror mutating into a self-perpetuating permanent war against a continually expanding list of enemies.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2014
Parliaments need a say on war
Democracies urgently need to modernize procedures and structures for going to war with parliamentary debate and sanction, instead of by government fiat based on the instincts of a strong-willed prime minister or president.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2014
NATO is endangering Earth
Have NATO leaders demonized Russian President Vladimir Putin and created the Russia-Ukraine crisis to justify NATO's continuation after its original purpose expired?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2014
Aussie uranium for India
The journey to the point where Australia has agreed to sell uranium to India has been tortuous, and the controversy is unlikely to fade anytime soon.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2014
Grading the Modi government
By the way he talks, new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi might appear to be replicating his Gujarat state model of learning to walk before starting to run with headstrong solutions to the big problems facing the country. Even so, he will have to walk the walk sooner than later.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2014
Australia should take lead on global no-first-use convention
There are good reasons why Australia is a credible candidate for leading the push for a global convention to enshrine a universal no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2014
Stop the world and let me off
A common thread unites Ukraine and Gaza. The West acts as if it has the right to control, change and determine the destiny of both peoples and to topple their governments, whether elected or not.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2014
MH17: condemn but learn
It is not acceptable to respond to the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, and to similar incidents, through the lens of either a friend or a foe. We need credible and prompt international investigations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2014
Geopolitics trumps economics
Western countries' insensitivity toward others' voices, values and interests lies behind the creation and evolution of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), whose New Development Bank will give priority to loans for developing countries to finance infrastructure projects and industrialization.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2014
China's reach for leverage
China's random and sporadic acts of provocations over territorial disputes seem to fail to intimidate its opponents in the Asia-Pacific region, but each push and probe tests retaliatory assets and calls into question the U.S. capacity, and will, to come to the aid of a beleaguered ally.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2014
Shamelessness of neocons
How do we impress on U.S. neocons-cum-chickenhawks — and their Australian-British fellow-travelers — the enormous disparity between the vision dreamed for Iraq, the goals pursued, the means used and the results obtained?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2014
U.S. foreign policy marked by blatant hypocrisy
It is a truth universally acknowledged that behavior by others inconsistent with social norms is condemned as hypocrisy but similar discrepancies in our own conduct is rationalized as understandable prioritization in the face of multiple goals. When the military deposed Egypt's first freely elected president,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2014
U.S.-Taliban deal raises six intertwined issues
What should have been a joyous American family reunion, a chance to welcome home an army sergeant held by the Taliban for five years and a photo-op for a beleaguered U.S. administration is instead morphing into multilayered debate about Barack Obama's common sense when it comes to foreign policy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2014
Modi's foreign policy agenda
When Shinzo Abe led his party to a landslide victory in Japan's 2012 general election, he broke from protocol by taking a congratulatory call from Narendra Modi, then a state leader in India. The mutual respect between the two strongly nationalist prime ministers could pay handsome dividends.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2014
Rise of aspirational India
The charismatic Narendra Modi will lead a majority government in India, as voters decisively repudiate the politics of dynasty, inheritance, entitlement, corruption and sycophancy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2014
Ukraine narratives spawn dangerous presumptions
Competing, starkly different U.S.-Western narratives are spawning dangerous presumptions with regard to the Ukraine crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2014
India's status quo is riskier
The political party that proudly led India into independence has been reduced to a self-serving coterie of sycophants, courtiers and court jesters. Is the status quo more risky than the 'Modi alternative' in the current election?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2014
Can a nuclear-weapons state champion disarmament?
India should be the one to step forward to champion a phased, regulated and verifiable global nuclear disarmament governed by a universal, nondiscriminatory nuclear weapons convention.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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