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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
Aug 18, 2013
Global threat of nuclear deterrence
lmost half a century after the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed, the world is still perched precariously on the edge of the nuclear precipice.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2013
U.N. norm setters vs. takers
How long will the United Nations division of labor last in which Westerners are the norm setters and enforcers while the rest are norm takers
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2013
Paradox of Egyptian democracy
Mohamed Morsi and his camp certainly erred and were not inclusive, but their martyrdom has dealt a big setback to the cause of democracy and the rule of law in Egypt.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2013
Can Rudd resurrect Labor?
Even by the standards of a sports-mad country in which politics is a blood-sport, the events leading to the comeback of Kevin Rudd have been extraordinary.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2013
Alternatives to North Korea's denuclearization
Sooner or later North Korea must be brought back into negotiations. Some now call denuclearization a pipe dream, preferring to focus on arms control.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2013
North Korean nuclear crisis
North Korea's nuclear and missile programs are a source of instability and tension in a region vital to global security and economic prosperity.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2013
Substitute question marks for exclamation marks
A terrible tragedy is unfolding in (fill in the name of your favorite trouble spot). Something must be done. This (choose from sending troops, air strikes, enforcing a no fly zone, arming rebels) is something. Therefore it must be done.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2013
Australia, Indonesia moving as close as perceptions allow
Irritants in Australia-Indonesia ties stem from popular Australian misperceptions about the changes in Indonesia and political condescension by some leaders.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2013
Five myths about the Iraq war
That the war changed Iraq into a stable and peaceful democracy is a myth. It has been left a broken and dysfunctional country. The big winner is Iran.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2013
Nuclear agenda out of play
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined a vision of a world freed of the threat of nuclear weapons, however, disappointingly little progress has been made in the ensuing four years.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2013
Leaders we can trust again
Leaders with a compelling vision whom we can trust again could turn back the tide of public cynicism in democratic governance. But where are they
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2013
To cut nuclear attack risks, take warheads off high alert
Taking nuclear warheads off high alert would strengthen deterrence by reducing the chance of armed rivals attacking each other after a rise in tension.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 6, 2013
Japan and Australia: natural allies in the changing Pacific
Does the U.S. pivot to the Pacific represent a necessary rebalancing, overbalancing or counter-balancing against China's growing wealth, power and assertiveness?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013
Ballast for Australia-India relations
As long as India focuses on consolidating national aspirations, and not on developing global governance norms, it will remain an incomplete power.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2013
Turning China into an enemy
The rise in tensions over disputed claims to islands and rocky outcrops in the South China Sea has the potential to harm the interests of Australia.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2013
How will Australia rebalance its trade, security relations?
How does Australia reconcile the pull of its European heritage, the security imperatives of the U.S. alliance and its trading ties with East Asia?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2013
Failures of governance spawned the rape crisis
The shock waves from the pack-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi continue to reverberate in India and around the world. The pathology of rape is not rooted in local culture. A nation does not rise in collective revulsion at normal but rather at unacceptable behavior.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2013
Can a woman's death spur a nation to end its violence against a gender?
Never have I felt so ashamed to be from India nor so despairing of its future.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2012
Boxed in, Japan swings right
Henry Kissinger once famously remarked that a great power does not retreat forever. This is a particularly apt comment on China's and South Korea's contributions to the outcome of last weekend's elections in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2012
The reality of R2P and POC
As Australia prepares to assume its two-year seat on the U.N. Security Council from Jan. 1, it will either have to react to, or may well decide to actively promote, the cause of protecting civilians caught in harm's way in contemporary armed conflicts. Either way, it would benefit from drawing on a recent...

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Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’