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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 / World

Sep 11, 2005

Aussies adjust the moorings

BRISBANE, Australia -- While the historical origins and cultural roots of Australia lie in Europe, its primary strategic alliance is with the United States, its pri- mary security focus is on Southeast Asia, and its major trading partners are in Northeast Asia.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 22, 2005

Asian chance after Annan

The term of Kofi Annan as U.N. secretary general (SG) expires Dec. 31, 2006. Countries and individuals have begun to position themselves to succeed him. If Asians are to have a credible chance of filling what should rightfully be their turn at the job, their discussions and negotiations in the next six...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 30, 2005

Balancing security and rights

On July 23, Jean Charles de Menezes, a young Brazilian legally living and working in Britain, was killed at Stockwell Underground Station in a tragic case of mistaken identity. Police have confirmed he had no links whatsoever to terrorism. But he had come out of a house under surveillance by antiterrorist...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 4, 2005

Security and human health

Human security remains a contested concept among scholars. Yet it is attractive to policymakers because it provides a template for practical action. On public health, for example, human security implies policies for correcting state shortcomings in protecting people against the most commonly prevalent...

COMMENTARY / World

May 29, 2005

Peer review of human rights

The spread of human rights norms and conventions, and the extension and diffusion of international humanitarian law, were among the truly great achievements of the last century. The United Nations was at the center of that effort.

COMMENTARY / World

May 10, 2005

Design for sustaining peace

DILI, East Timor -- The United Nations has not been notably successful in moving from initial stabilization, infrastruc- ture reconstruction and re-establishment of local governance institutions to the more demanding goal of leaving behind self-sustaining structures of state that can implement rapid...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 29, 2005

Enhancing U.N. legitimacy

Many commentators have noted that the timing and intensity of the recent surge in anti-Japan protests in China may be due in part to Tokyo's push for permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council. At the same time, during a highly successful and very visible visit to India, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao...

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 10, 2005

Intervention based on rules

According to the U.N. High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, "The maintenance of world peace and security depends importantly on there be-- ing a common global understanding, and acceptance, of when the application of force is both legal and legitimate."

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 22, 2005

The U.N.'s 'underachievers'

Carol Bellamy, the outgoing head of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), has bemoaned the lack of women in top U.N. posts. The organization that preaches gender equality to national governments needs some "affirmative action" to put women in senior positions, she said, adding that other organizations such...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 13, 2005

The deep end of Indian state democracy

PATNA, India -- In the early 1990s, a British travel writer described Patna, capital of the northwestern Indian state of Bihar, as the capital of hell on earth. There is indeed something rotten in the state of Bihar and things have only gotten worse. People live in a Hobbesian world, where life is nasty,...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 12, 2005

Freedom, when it suits U.S.

No one who watched the exhilaration and exuberance of Iraqis facing down the threat of bullets in order to cast their ballots can fail to have been moved. And for those who were actually in Iraq to witness this firsthand, battle-hardened and cynical journalists included, it must have been bliss indeed...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 30, 2005

Looking up after bleak year

Two years ago, the World Economic Forum launched a Global Governance Initiative that brought together a group of experts from around the world to map the state of the world on peace and security, education, environment, health, human rights, and hunger and poverty. The initiative provides an assessment,...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 4, 2004

Knives out for Kofi Annan

One would think that the cheerleaders for waging war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, on the thoroughly discredited grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, would have retreated into a period of quiet introspection. In fact, it is as difficult to find any trace of embarrassment, humility or...

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 3, 2004

How one council can speak for the world

There is almost universal agreement that the U.N. Security Council has become increasingly unrepresentative over the past 59 years. Its five perma- nent members are a self-appointed oligarchy who wrote their own exalted status into the U.N. Charter. International stratification is never rigid, and states...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 17, 2004

Did Kosovo illuminate Iraq?

One of the curious features of the Iraq war last year was the serious split across the Atlantic. And what seemed to puzzle as much as infuriate Americans was why the major European powers, having signed on to war without U.N. authorization in 1999 against Slobodan Milosevic, "the butcher of Belgrade,"...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 10, 2004

Choosing how to intervene

From Iraq to Darfur, the topic of international intervention to protect people from the brutality of their own governments remains a deeply divisive one for the international community. Western countries are likely to be the subjects not objects of intervention, and their worldview is colored by this...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 29, 2004

A refitted Security Council

Everyone acknowledges the need for U.N. Security Council reform in theory. Unfortunately, they cannot agree on an one particular reform package. Once people see the details of a concrete proposal, losers and opponents always seem to outnumber winners and supporters. The urgency for reform is now extreme....

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 16, 2004

Challenging Canberra's march to war

On Aug. 8, a group of 43 former top Australian officials -- department heads in foreign affairs and defense, military chiefs, ambassadors -- published an open letter calling for "truth in government." This was without precedent in Australia, although it follows earlier British and American examples....

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 19, 2004

Going global with civic virtues

How do we instill civic virtue in the global marketplace to civilize and tame it so that we arrive at the place where the market serves the people instead of where people are served up to the market? Around half of the world's 100 largest economies are private companies. This gives the private sector...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 20, 2004

Popular return of a dynasty

It is generally accepted in India and abroad that, in the changed political landscape of India, Sonia Gandhi is the power behind the scenes. She is the convener of the ruling multiparty alliance. Her son Rahul Gandhi, a new member of Parliament from the "family" seat of Amethi in northern India (which...

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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