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May 05, 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.
For Ramesh Thakur's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2022
Hiroshima as permanent host of NPT review conference?
Hiroshima should be the permanent host of all future NPT review conferences so that discussions and negotiations are held in the shadow of the realities of nuclear warfare.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2022
Djokovic’s rare victory against Australia’s COVID-19 tyranny
The 'breathtaking arrogance' of the government's continued stance on Djokovic's COVID-19-detention is more frightening than the original blunder.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2021
Why AUKUS is a game changer in the Indo-Pacific
Critics of Canberra's decision to use nuclear propulsion for subs are worried less about Australia than about the precedent it sets for proliferation among more problematic countries.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2021
The ruckus over AUKUS
Australia's decision to cancel its deal to buy a dozen French diesel submarines has roiled relations with France and introduced fresh tensions into relations with China.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2021
Australia's 'authoritarian' COVID-19 response
Australia, once the envy of the world for its pandemic management, is now being criticized by some over the authoritarian measures it is using to crush COVID-19.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2021
Taiwan for all intents and purposes is an independent country. Deal with it.
The best way to raise the diplomatic costs of adventurism to China is to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state and grant it full diplomatic recognition.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2021
Coronavirus and China’s geopolitical rollercoaster
It seemed for a time that the pandemic could mark a moment of ascendancy in the “psychological balance of power” as China moved to supplant America's leadership role.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2021
India’s suspect ‘Quad’ credentials
COVID-19 has brutally exposed the hollowness of India's pretensions to power, status and influence and boasts of being a vaccine superpower and pharmacy to the world.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2021
It’s time we learn to live with coronavirus
In reality, no one has definitive answers and stronger restrictions have not resulted in fewer COVID-19 deaths.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2021
In support for Myanmar’s democracy, conditions apply
Outside powers should support ASEAN's lead role and work with it to persuade the generals to vacate the governance space without further bloodshed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2021
Australia’s face-off with Facebook is of global import
In one clumsy strike, Facebook unified the entire Australian political spectrum, alienated its users and underlined just why tech giants require enforceable regulation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2021
Biden’s limited options on North Korea
If North Korea's nuclear status is seen to have been normalized, it could trigger a cascade of proliferation across Northeast Asia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 10, 2021
The West should envy Japan’s COVID-19 response
The virus is not unprecedented, but the draconian societal shutdowns are. Who would have expected Western democracies to mimic authoritarian China?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 9, 2020
Australia and Japan edge toward an alliance
On Nov. 17, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison became the first foreign leader to visit Japan since Yoshihide Suga assumed the prime ministership.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2020
Mobilizing the world behind the nuclear weapons ban treaty
Setsuko Thurlow is an atomic bombing survivor who lives in Canada. She has been a highly visible public face of the hibakusha around the world, campaigning tirelessly for nuclear abolition and was included in the small delegation from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. When she showed up in the audience at a lecture I delivered in Toronto a couple of years ago, the atmosphere in the room turned electric and I felt the full emotional weight of history settle on my shoulders. On July 7, 2017, she was given the signal honor to deliver the closing remarks after the historic adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations in New York. On that occasion, she memorably declared: “Nuclear weapons have always been immoral. Now they are also illegal.” Her declaration was three years premature, but we knew the significance of her pronouncement.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2020
China balks at U.S. efforts for nuclear arms talks
Beijing perceives U.S. policy as being increasingly aggressive and aimed at containing China. Nuclear forces are seen as the ultimate guarantor of national security.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2020
The Security Council will perish without reform
In the 75 years since the U.N. charter was signed, the world has changed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2020
Is 'coronaphobia' more deadly than the coronavirus?
The mission creep from flattening the curve to eradicating COVID-19 has been ill-conceived and calamitous.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2020
Nuclear-armed China and India fight with fists, stones and clubs
June 15 could mark the date on which China “lost India” strategically.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2020
Six deadly lockdown sins
The lockdowns across the world will likely kill more people than they saved.
Japan says Biden's description of nation as xenophobic is 'unfortunate'
The National Diet building in Tokyo
With eye on China, defense chiefs agree to bolster interoperability
From left: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian defense chief Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro hold a joint news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
Japan drops to 70th in press freedom rankings
A businessman reads a newspaper outside a train station in Tokyo.
Traders spooked by intervention risk trim record yen shorts
Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan to prop up the currency.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
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