Articles by: "Ramesh Thakur"
So, where did Covid-19 come from?

The arrival of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, which has killed 3.5 million people and counting, should have been the moment when the World Health Organization came into its own. This is its primary …

India’s growing democratic deficit

In the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index published in early February, the world’s top five democracies are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada. North Korea sits triumphantly at the bottom. India is classified …

Biden’s chance to revive nuclear arms control

As President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris prepare to be sworn in on 20 January, there’s an expectation of US re-engagement with multilateralism and a return to some semblance of normality, stability, continuity and …

Abe’s mark on Indo-Pacific partnerships

Shinzo Abe was born into Japan’s political royalty. His maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, barely escaped trial as a Class-A war criminal yet he served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960. His paternal grandfather, Kan …

China as the godfather of Quad 2.0

The confluence of forces built around shared unease and growing anxiety over the implications of China’s rapid military expansion, salami-slicing territorial creep and ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy is fertile ground for the revival of the quadrilateral …