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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.

For Ramesh Thakur's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Nov 28, 2007

Labor wins by a Rudd-slide

WATERLOO, Ontario — Poor John Howard. Reckless on climate change, clueless in Iraq, fickle on civil liberties, mean to migrants and minorities, ruthless toward the workers — and now jobless. He also was set to lose the Parliament seat he has represented since 1974, the first sitting prime...

COMMENTARY

Nov 7, 2007

Time for Musharraf to go

Waterloo, ONTARIO — For outsiders as for Pakistanis, the choice is between worse and worst: a militantly Islamic, 160 million strong, nuclear-armed failed state at the strategic crossroads of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Pakistan's fate has rested historically on the three A's:...

COMMENTARY

Sep 26, 2007

Keep the Arctic free of nuclear weapons

WATERLOO, Ontario — As a nonnative speaker of English, I have always been intrigued by the phrase "polar opposites." Fact is, nothing so resembles the North Pole as the South Pole. Based on this polar symmetry, there exist the opportunity and an increasingly urgent need to emulate Antarctica and...

COMMENTARY

Sep 15, 2007

Taiwan's sad quest for U.N. membership

WATERLOO, Ontario — As the United Nations General Assembly begins its annual session later this month, it will refuse once again to confront an issue where the denial of reality intersects with a negation of the world body's core values.

COMMENTARY

Jan 12, 2007

Crisis in multilateral trade

"Globalization" remains controversial. It has produced increasing economic interdependence through the growing volume and variety of cross-border flows of finance, investment, goods and services, and the rapid and widespread diffusion of technology.

COMMENTARY

Nov 20, 2006

Know the goals of military intervention

In a Washington Post article reprinted in these pages on Oct. 10, "The humanitarian war myth," Eric Posner writes: "If the United Nations were to have its way, the Iraqi debacle would be just the first in a series of such wars -- the effect of a well-meaning but ill-considered effort to make humanitarian...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 25, 2006

What's in store for Thailand?

During a conference in Bangkok in August, signs of a three-way tussle among Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, his political opponents and the military were already evident. For example, a former army chief who remains influential as an adviser to the king made a point of wearing the uniform while addressing...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 18, 2006

Weighing Israel's way of war

There are two alternative models for examining conflicts. Model One assumes that there are at least two parties who disagree over facts, causes, consequenc- es and the best way forward. Both sides are wrong, with neither being entirely blameless. Both will have to live with each other, no matter how...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 16, 2006

Intelligence works better than bullets

The British police, acting closely with intelligence agencies in the United States, Pakistan and perhaps elsewhere over many months, have foiled a major terrorist plot of blowing up numerous planes between Britain and America.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 5, 2006

Bringing peace to Lebanon

As Israel encounters stiffer than expected resistance to its attacks in Lebanon, and world outrage and condemnation of the mounting human toll rises, calls grow for a ceasefire followed by the deployment of a fresh peacekeeping force. The nature and prospects of a new mission will depend crucially on...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 29, 2006

Getting tough on terrorism

Now that some time has passed since the seven serial blasts on Bombay's commuter trains on July 11 that killed almost 200 and wounded another 700, it is possible to take a more dispassionate look at the tragedy. In particular, while not absolving terrorists and their external backers of the main blame...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 24, 2006

Containing chemical weapons

Recent events from the Middle East to Northeast Asia have once again highlighted the unsatisfactory state of affairs with respect to the tool kit available to the international community for responding to the challenge of weapons of mass destruction. This makes it all the more curious as to why more...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 13, 2006

Guantanamo: shame on U.S.

David Hicks is a young man from Adelaide who was corrupted by al-Qaida propaganda and volunteered to train with them in Afghanistan. He left Afghanistan without having committed any terrorist or criminal act, then decided to go back to collect his meager belongings. Rather stupidly, that was after the...

COMMENTARY / World

May 10, 2006

North-South fault line in global politics

On April 28 developing countries voted as a group at the United Nations to shelve management reforms proposed by Secretary General Kofi Annan in the wake of the oil-for-food scandal. Annan had requested more discretion and latitude in hiring, shifting and firing his staff, and controlling the organization's...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 16, 2006

At least no new wars began

The Davos-based World Economic Forum has just published the third annual report of its Global Governance Initiative. The past year was rated slightly less dangerous than 2004 but still a long way from being safe and secure. The United Nation's 60th Anniversary World Summit in September, a once-in-a-generation...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 26, 2006

Why America needs the U.N.

We have to live in and manage a world in which the threat and use of force remain an ever present reality. The material capacity, economic efficiency, political organization and military skills in the use of force determine the international power hierarchy. Great powers rise and fall on the tide of...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 24, 2005

Desertification on the march

To the average person, "desertification" likely conjures up images of sandstorms sweeping across the Sahara. While this is one manifestation, desertification is a global process that persistently reduces the benefits people get from nature -- collectively termed "ecosystem services." This happens as...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 10, 2005

The reduction of impunity

Government is about making and implementing public policy choices. These are neither always easy nor always right. Governments, like individuals, do make mistakes. But in democracies, the task of making decisions on behalf of the people is delegated to elected representatives who then answer to the courts...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 13, 2005

From national security to human security

The suffering and death inflicted by last December's tsunami and Hurricane Katrina shows the need to reframe security in human terms.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 3, 2005

U.N.'s 'Einstein' moment

The optimists had hoped for a "San Francisco moment" in New York, as decisive and momentous as the signing of the U.N. Charter 60 years earlier in the city by the bay. Critics might well conclude that instead the United Nations had an Einstein moment, recalling his definition of madness as doing something...

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

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