Ramesh Thakur

Australian National University

Ramesh Thakur is the director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament in the Crawford School, Australian National University, and co-convenor of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. He was an assistant secretary-general of the United Nations from 1998 to 2007.

Articles by Ramesh Thakur

Security

Trump and the Nuclear World Order

Thursday, March 22, 2018

In its Nuclear Posture Review released in February 2018, the Trump administration introduced new types of weapons and expanded the circumstances for justifying their use. This reverses nuclear arms control gains acquired through decades of delicate global negotiations.

Security

U.S. Attack on Syria Makes Fraying World Order Worse

Thursday, April 19, 2018

The world is once again in dismay after the use of chemical weapons was reported in Douma. In response, the U.S. struck, together with the UK and France, chemical weapons facilities in Syria on April 13 and 14. The stated purpose was to uphold international law, but the action could have far-reaching—and destabilizing—consequences.

Security

America First or America Isolated: The Case of the International Criminal Court

Thursday, September 20, 2018

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 U.S. Though a few of Bolton’s protestations have merit, the U.S. is setting a dangerous precedent in condemning the court.

Security

Farewell to Nuclear Arms Control?

Thursday, October 25, 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 policy.