Writer
Ramesh Thakur
Ramesh Thakur is emeritus professor, Australian National University and a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General.
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Trump abandons the cheese to escape the Syria mousetrap
Robert A. Lovett, Secretary of Defense (1951–53) in the Truman administration, advised that faced with political crises that carried great risks for small gains: ‘Forget the cheese; let’s get out of the trap’. Since the end of the Cold War and the resulting upsurge of triumphalism and exceptionalism among US policymakers and public intellectuals, America Continue reading »
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India’s 2019 general election suddenly becomes a lot more interesting
India’s recent elections in five states (Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Mizoram, Rajasthan, Telengana) were largely a contest between the Congress as the country’s grand old party led by Rahul Gandhi, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by PM Narendra Modi. Congress did not just lose office in 2014, it was routed, winning just 44 Continue reading »
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Sino-U.S. clash is a great power competition, not ‘Cold War II’ (The Japan Times)
CHINA – In the Trump administration’s most substantial foreign policy speech thus far, delivered at the Hudson Institute on Oct. 4, Vice President Mike Pence accused China of a “whole-of-government” attack on U.S. interests and vowed the United States will respond with robust countermeasures. Continue reading »
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Racial misprofiling
On 9 November, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali crashed a vehicle full of gas cylinders in Bourke Street, Melbourne and stabbed three people, one fatally, before being shot by police. The 30-year old was on multiple watchlists at the time because if his known radical views and links to Islamic State. Yet he was not under Continue reading »
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Preventing Mass Atrocities
Tyranny is not restricted to any particular religion, culture, civilisation or gender. Political rule based in terror rather than citizen’s welfare, safety and security is a universal moral failing. The Westphalian system of sovereign states spread from Europe to cover the whole world after decolonisation. Because it was seen to have sanctified the ability of Continue reading »
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Farewell to Nuclear Arms Control? (Asia Global Online, 25 October 2018)
The United States has affirmed strategic competition with both Russia and China as the central organizing principle of its national security policy. The announcement on October 20 by President Donald Trump that the U.S. would withdraw from the 30-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because of alleged Russian violations might be a key plank of that Continue reading »
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The three structural dead weights of India–Pakistan relations
On 2 September, ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit, the Pentagon announced the cancellation of US$300 million in aid to Pakistan for its alleged failure to take effective action against terrorist networks operating from its soil, including the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban. This was part of a broader cut announced on Continue reading »
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President Moon Jae-in is driving the Korea peace train.
The Korean War is 68 years old. Despite a ceasefire in effect since 1953, the heavily militarized border is still patrolled by soldiers, ringed with barbed wire and covered in land mines. Almost seven decades of containing, isolating and embargoing North Korea have demonstrably failed. It is time to pause and reconsider. South Korean President Continue reading »
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Of academic freedom and institutional integrity: A Canadian prequel to the ANU rejection of the Ramsay Centre millions
At the University Chancellors’ 11th national conference in Adelaide on 4 October, the Australian National University Chancellor Gareth Evans delivered the inaugural Chancellor’s Oration. One section of his speech dealt with the imperative to defend university autonomy. Continue reading »
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China and New World Order. North Korea Part 4
The most acute contemporary manifestation of the demand on China to demonstrate responsible leadership is the challenge of North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Le Hong Hiep speculated on the prospect of a grand bargain between Trump and Xi when they met at Mar-a-Lago to accommodate US concerns on its massive bilateral trade deficit and on North Continue reading »
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China and New World Order. Rules Based Global Order Part 5
China recognizes that it has been a major beneficiary of the existing international order and it has proven to be a fast learner in operating as a responsible power within that order. Its primary goal therefore will not be to perturb the order, but to gain greater influence in writing the rules and running the Continue reading »
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China and world order: Navigating the Thucydides and Kindleberger Traps Part 3 Asia–Pacific
Former Australian PM Paul Keating holds that as a non-Asian power, the US cannot remain ‘the strategic guarantor’ of Asia in perpetuity. It remains ‘important to the peace and good order of East Asia… [but] as a balancing and conciliating power’. The Australian’s Labor Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Senator Penny Wong argues that to get Continue reading »
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China and the New World Order. China–USA Part 2
Westerners may believe that the growing integration and interdependence of China with the regional and international economy makes armed conflict too costly to contemplate and that the Pacific military balance is so heavily in US favour that China would not be foolish enough to challenge Washington. But what if Beijing believes that the costs to Continue reading »
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China and World Order: Navigating the Thucydides and Kindleberger Traps Part 1
There have been two big geopolitical storylines thus far in this century: the US has suffered a relative decline from its dominant position at the end of the Cold War; and China has acquired impressive power in both relative and absolute terms. How China develops economically and evolves politically, and how it behaves domestically, regionally Continue reading »
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Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula: Explaining the Stalemate
With the conclusion of the third inter-Korean summit last week, the next challenge will be to find common understanding. Continue reading »
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America First or America Isolated: The Case of the International Criminal Court.
Donald Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, has acted on his long-stated distaste for the International Criminal Court by declaring it dead to the US Though a few of Bolton’s protestations have merit, the US is setting a dangerous precedent in condemning the court. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Why Serena Williams owes a triple apology.
CANBERRA – Serena Williams, a deserved legend in her own lifetime, owes a public apology to Naomi Osaka, match umpire Carlos Ramos and the world’s tennis fans. She was the perpetrator, not the victim, of unprovoked abuse. Women should be among the first to recognize and condemn blame-shifting from the perpetrator to the victim. Attempts to Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. India’s VIP culture: Forget Lincoln’s definition of democracy. India’s government is of VIPs, by VIPs and for VIPs (Times of India, 04.090.18)
Last week, the Madras high court ordered the National Highways Authority of India to separate ordinary citizens from VIPs at toll gates, with a dedicated lane for the latter. Of course, high court judges are included in the list of VIPs. The court held it to be ‘disheartening’ and ‘very unfortunate’ that judges are ‘compelled Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Importing private sector efficiency or infecting the public service with the ‘greed is good’ disease
There has never been a more exciting time to be a critic of the ‘greed is good’ philosophy of the corporate sector. The revelations from the banking and finance royal commission have been gobsmacking. There was also the beat up of my university for having the temerity to weigh the attraction, of substantial funding from Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Challenging the Peter Principle: From Julie Bishop to Marise Payne
Before coming to Julie Bishop’s record as foreign minister in areas of my particular interest, three preliminary comments. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Kofi Annan’s Achievement
Great chief executives need a guiding vision for the exercise of authority, and all the more so when that authority is international civil authority. As United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan had such a vision – and the skills needed to realize it. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Japan’s nuclear options.
Hiroshima was the first city in the world to be attacked by an atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. The last time that an atomic weapon was used was to bomb Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. By the end of that fateful year, an estimated 214,000 people had died from the two bombs. Ever since, Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR and RICHARD BUTLER. A spying scandal exposes Australia’s immoral behavior toward East Timor (Washington Post, 10.08.18)
Australia is leading the Western world in enacting tough new laws to curb foreign interference and influence-peddling in domestic affairs. The primary intended target is China. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Syria: what if?
US President Donald Trump has been widely criticised for his supposed fawning performance in Helsinki at the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But a minority of commentators have made three countervailing arguments to explain and justify Trump’s statements: preventing a US–Russia nuclear war by calming bilateral tensions that have arisen from the dangerous infection Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Australia’s invisible Asians
There are three components to any spoken or written act of communication: the intended message (what was meant by the sender); the message as conveyed (what was actually said); and the message as received (how it is interpreted by the recipient). The emphasis on language and inoffensive speech – with offence being subjective as per Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Is the sun setting on the US imperium? (Repost from 15/5/2018)
China is on the march to a dominant military footprint while American policy lacks strategic intent. Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Australia and the Quad (The Strategist)
On 18 January, admirals from Australia, India, Japan and the US sat together on stage at the high-profile Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi. Their presence reflected the shared strategic assessment that China has become a disruptive force in the Indo-Pacific. Taking time out to deliver a lecture at India’s National Defence College, Australian Defence Industry Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. The Kim–Trump Summit: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Australian Outlook. 15/6/2018)
Despite praise for Tuesday’s “unprecedented” meeting, there were good reasons why previous US administrations had refused multiple requests from North Korean leaders to meet. The results of the Kim–Trump summit so far can be divided into the good, the bad and the ugly. The words ‘historic’ and ‘unprecedented’ to describe the meeting between President Donald Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. Did John Bolton try to sink the Trump-Kim summit?
Had former U.S. President Barack Obama “done a Trump” with North Korea — agreed to a summit with Kim Jong Un without requiring denuclearization first, secretly sent his secretary of state to Pyongyang, described Kim as “honorable.” canceled joint military exercises with South Korea, been prepared to consider pulling U.S. troops out of Korea — Continue reading »
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RAMESH THAKUR. What Sank the Kim-Trump Summit?
The abrupt cancellation of next month’s planned meeting between the North Korean and US leaders should surprise no one. Developments in recent weeks exposed three factors that doomed the initiative to collapse. Continue reading »