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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

Jul 17, 2003

Why India said 'no' to U.S.

Those who think little of the United Nations are constantly puzzled by the authority it continues to exert for many others around the world. On Monday, India decided against sending a major contingent of troops to Iraq because the operation would be outside the U.N. mandate, thereby reconfirming Secretary...

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 7, 2003

Politics of human migrations

One in five Canadian workers, one in four Australians or -- at the other extreme -- one in 500 Japanese workers is foreign-born today. The 1 million Indians in the United States comprise a meager 0.1 percent of India's population, but earn the equivalent of an astonishing 10 percent of India's national...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 1, 2003

Contradictory U.S. triumph

An unusual, and thus intriguing, feature of the Iraq war is how both proponents and opponents feel passionately vindicated by what happened. The switch in justification -- from finding and destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the war to the humanitarian liberation of Iraqis from a murderous...

COMMENTARY / World

May 19, 2003

Humor's role in war survives

After a lifetime as a student and teacher of international relations, I have been impressed by just how much of the essence of world affairs -- not to mention the attention span of students and audiences -- can be captured through pithy jokes. The recent Iraq war is no exception to this rule. (Although...

COMMENTARY / World

May 10, 2003

End of the old world disorder?

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 27, 2003

War vindicates U.N. stance

Are not the scenes of joy and jubilation from Iraq an embarrassing indictment of the United Nations' failure to support the war? Well, no, not really. On the contrary, the course and outcome of the war is a strong vindication of the U.N. stance. To argue that military victory bestows legitimacy is to...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 30, 2003

Risks of selected 'free trade'

A marked trend in world affairs since the 1980s has been a series of bilateral and regional free-trade agreements, or FTAs, in Australasia, the Americas and Asia, not to mention Europe. Japan, having largely stayed out of these, is now at least contemplating the idea with some selected trade partners....

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 23, 2003

More relevant now than ever

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, set in revolutionary France, begins with the observation that it was the best of times and the worst of times. So might it be said, thanks in no small measure to France, of the tale of two cities of contemporary times, namely Washington and New York, the political...

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 12, 2003

U.S. bears costs as U.N. is challenged

As the issue of Iraq comes to a head, the United Nations faces a grave challenge. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are deeply divided; many governments -- British, Japanese, Spanish, Turkish -- are at odds with their own people; and the divisions have hardened since U.S. President...

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 9, 2003

U.S. test of U.N. relevance

Time was when those threatening to go to war had to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt. Today we are asked to prove to the powerful, to their satisfaction, why they should not go to war. The U.N. inspectors don't have to prove that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction; Iraqi President Saddam Hussein...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 27, 2003

China leaves India in the dust

NEW DELHI -- While I was in India recently, the first phase of an underground railway was inaugurated in New Delhi. At about the same time, in Shanghai, the world's first magnetic levitation train was inaugurated between the airport and the city. This is a fitting metaphor for the two countries. China...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 19, 2002

United in trauma of terror

While India is the world's most populous democracy, Israel is the Middle East's most notable. Relations between democratic countries can be strained on particular issues, but the underlying strength remains resilient. Judaism and Hinduism are among the world's ancient civilizations and "root faiths"...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 15, 2002

Capturing today's relevant aspirations

On Oct. 8 I wrote about the second report by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, published Sept. 23, on reforming the U.N. An important innovation in this report (Chapter Two entitled "Doing What Matters") is that it actually tackles the substantive agenda of the organization's work program....

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 2, 2002

Bridging North-South gap

During the Cold War, the contours of the U.N. agenda were shaped by East-West and North-South fault lines. While the East-West divide disappeared with the Berlin Wall, the North-South divide continues to plague the organization, undermining its relevance at times. There is evidence of a recent relaxation...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 20, 2002

Peril of pre-emptive thinking

NEW YORK -- Should Washington go to war unilaterally, it will put at risk the hard-earned reputation since 1945 of being an essentially peaceful hegemonist that fights only in self-defense -- unlike the former Soviet Union, the expansionist bully that dressed up its aggression in the rhetoric of a universal...

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 8, 2002

U.N. aims higher with sweeping reforms

Shakespeare's aphorism is as applicable to organizations as to individuals: "the evil they do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." Let it not be so with the United Nations. Rather, let us recall with pride the process of reform in the organization. Much, in fact, has already...

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 21, 2002

Testing times for the U.N.

In finally taking the vexed issue of war with Iraq to the United Nations, U.S. President George W. Bush has presented the organization with a double-edged test of credibility. Will it lift its performance and remain relevant to U.S. foreign policy on Washington's terms, or in doing so will it be seen...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 25, 2002

Best justice for crimes against humanity

The International Criminal Court became operational in July. Washington heaped insult on injury when it vetoed a routine extension of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in the same month because of the failure to get a blanket and permanent immunity from prosecution of its peacekeepers...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 24, 2002

When guilt goes beyond crime

First of two parts. The second will appear on this page tomorrow. If you kill one person, an old joke goes, you get sent to jail. Kill 20, you get sent to a mental asylum. Kill 20,000, you get sent to Geneva for peace talks. The story is very much a reflection of the mass atrocities of the 20th century....

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