Ramesh Thakur

Ramesh Thakur is emeritus professor at the Australian National University and a former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General. Of Indian origin, he is a citizen of Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Ramesh's recent articles

The White Mans Media Part I

Ramesh Thakur highlights how a biased coverage of the war on terror and the Iraq War by the US media eroded US soft power.

The White Mans media Part 2

In the second part, Ramesh Thakur extends his analysis of bias in the Western media to their coverage of Iran, Russia, Ukraine and India.

Is the sun setting on the US imperium?

China is on the march to a dominant military footprint while American policy lacks strategic intent.

Appeasement and learning the right lessons of history

The lesson of Munich for major powers Britain and France was that you do not buy peace with fellow major powers tomorrow by giving in to their demands today. But for smaller powers, the lesson was that faced with the prospect of war with a major power, your allies and guarantors will rather sell you out than risk a war.

RAMESH THAKUR. Between tragedy and farce in the Korean peninsula

The worlds options on North Korea can be summarised as bad (strategic patience), worse (growing strategic impatience), and worst (military strikes).

RAMESH THAKUR. Donald Trump is more believable and moral than Putin Seriously?

Instead of cheering US resort to increasingly robust use of military firepower as the first response to international crises, Western leaders should be ring-fencing Trumps instinct to reckless behaviour in order to avoid a catastrophe.

RAMESH THAKUR. Decoding the Trump strikes on Syria

The use of chemical weapons in Syria and the US air strikes in punishment are part of the continuing descent into lawlessness by various actors with unforeseeable consequences in an already inflamed region.

RAMESH THAKUR. Nuclear powers and umbrella states must engage with, not obstruct, the international community.

It is time for the so-called realists to get real about the existential dangers of a world brimming with nuclear weapons.

RAMESH THAKUR. Indias democracy is strained by illiberalism

India continues to be robustly, even chaotically, democratic. But its freedom is under growing threat.

RAMESH THAKUR. The Trump effect and Japan

Japan has an exceptional opportunity, while maneuvering to remain close to Washington, to reduce its unhealthy security and economic dependency on the United States, and to educate the U.S. administration on the merits and benefits of the key planks of a rules-based global order and international cooperation.

RAMESH THAKUR. Contrasting US and UN leaders: The brash disruptor vs. the softly softly conciliator

Both UN Secretary-General (SG) Antonio Guterres and US President Donald Trump took office in January. They could not be more different in background, temperament, experience and leadership style. Trump is brash, loud, vulgar, an amateur outsider and the ultimate disruptor, used to bossing everyone else, who does not do sensitivity. Guterres is courteous, sophisticated, cultured, professional, a global insider and the ultimate conciliator who persuades and coaxes colleagues to follow his lead.

Trumps assault on the liberal international order

There is considerable skepticism about U.S. President Donald Trumps commitment to uphold the post-1945 liberal international order crafted under American leadership and underwritten by U.S. military power, economic heft and geopolitical clout. Trumps pre-election statements on trade, immigration, alliances and nuclear policy in particular seemed to question these four critical pillars of established U.S. policy.

RAMESH THAKUR. The nuclear deal with Iran was a triumph of global diplomacy, not a success of US sanctions

The deal (with Iran) is worth defending for three reasons: it is a good accommodation of each sides bottom lines; sanctions may not have been as decisive as the hawks seem to believe in explaining Irans signature; and unilateral US sanctions will prove even less effectual.

RAMESH THAKUR. Australia needs to wake up, grow up.

Without abandoning ANZUS but downsizing it considerably, Australia must chart an independent foreign policy according to a Canberra-based calculation of national values and interests. Or does Australia really want to make the transition to aligning with Trumps view that if only the West had confiscated Iraqs oil and wealth after the 2003 invasion, there would have been no Islamic State militant group and all would have been honky dory?

RAMESH THAKUR. Will Donald Trumps persona destroy his administration?

Donald Trump swept through the primary and election campaigns like a disruptive force of nature to a victory that unsettled almost all conventional wisdom about modern American politics. A shocked Democratic Party and city-based cultural elites are still in denial about his victory.

RAMESH THAKUR. Australias gulag of shame

As someone born after World War II who grew up in India, I have always wondered how it was possible for a highly civilized society like Germany to have been complicit through silence in the horror of the Holocaust. It simply wasnt possible for people not to have known what was being done to the Jews on an industrial scale, and that too in their name. For the first time, as an Australian, I begin to get glimmers of understanding.

RAMESH THAKUR. Syria and the Hippocratic principle: first do no harm

Western interference has worsened the pathology of broken, corrupt and dysfunctional politics across the region from Afghanistan to North Africa.

RAMESH THAKUR. AHRC President Gillian Triggs: a year of living dangerously. Part 3 of 3.

In hearings before a Senate estimates committee on 18 October, Triggs said her interview had been inaccurately reported, with quotes taken out of context and even fabricated. When the papers editor replied they held an audio recording of the interview, Triggs acknowledged that the article was an accurate excerpt.

RAMESH THAKUR. What a Twitter-Happy Trump Might Mean For Nuclear Diplomacy

Far from making America great again, Trump is more likely to make America grope again in the darkness of the post-nuclear age.

RAMESH THAKUR. AHRC President Gillian Triggs: a year of living dangerously. Part 2 of 3.

Asylum seekers and children in detention There are four separate issues that typically get lumped into one confusing debate: the policies on asylum seekers, boats turnback and offshore detention; and the treatment of detainees.

RAMESH THAKUR. AHRC President Gillian Triggs: a year of living dangerously. Part 1 of 3.

Increasingly, voters are frustrated with parties captured by special interests or catering to noisy minority activists. Citizens want competent governance that promotes the general welfare.

RAMESH THAKUR. UN rebuffs Netanyahu and Trump.

The United Nations Security Councils pre-Christmas condemnation of Israels construction of settlements in the occupied territories surprised many and infuriated Israel. The move was rebuff to both Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to incoming US President-elect Donald Trump. How did it happen? And what will be thelikely ramifications.

RAMESH THAKUR. New series. We can say 'no' to the Americans.

Without rupturing ANZUS, Australia must reclaim the space to chart an independent foreign policy according to a Canberra-based calculation of national values and interests. Indeed, a visibly independent foreign policy on matters important to Australia could be the most effective strategy for quarantining the alliance from the disruptive Trump effect.

RAMESH THAKUR. ANZUS in the time of Trump. Quo vadis series.

Quo vadis - Australian foreign policy and ANZUS. Summary.Trump has the potential to mark an inflection point in the evolution of Australia as a self-confident and independent Indo-Pacific actor.

RAMESH THAKUR. The nuclear refuseniks: Australia follows the US again.

In voting against the UN resolution calling for negotiation of a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, Australia, Japan and South Korea are swimming against the global tide of opinion and that of their Asia and Pacific neighbours, argues Ramesh Thakur.

RAMESH THAKUR. Has NATO become a threat to world peace?

NATO is endangering Earth This article was first published in the Japan Times on 8 September 2014. Have NATO leaders created a crisis to justify NATOs continuation after its original purpose expired? Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says: Without U.S.-sponsored regime change, it is unlikely that the Malaysian Airlines crash would have happened. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, wonders why Washington is risking war with Russia. John Mearsheimer argues the Ukraine crisis Is the Wests fault.

RAMESH THAKUR. The slide to war with Russia.

God created war so Americans could learn geography (1) On 3 October, taking another step on the road to a new cold war, Russia suspended the 16-year bilateral plutonium disposition agreement with the US. Are the two countries sleepwalking into a war that could cross the nuclear threshold remembering that those sleepwalking are unaware of it at the time? One possible pathway to slide into war would be to act on the growing chorus of calls in the Washington beltway for a no-fly-zone over Syria. In a bon mot often misattributed to Mark Twain that is so good...

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