Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs

Political Science Department, University of Waterloo

Contact Information

GIGI
57 Erb Street West
Waterloo, Ontario
N2L 6C2
519 .885.2444 x 291

Department of Political Science
Office Location: HH 311
Phone Number: 519.888.4567 Ext. 33642
E-Mail: rthakur @ balsillieschool.ca
Website: http://politicalscience.uwaterloo.ca/profiles/prof-thakur.htm

Education

 
Ph D - 1978, Political Studies, Queen's University, Canada
M A - 1972, Political Studies, Queen's University, Canada
B A (Hons) - 1969, Political Science, University of Calcutta, India

Areas of Specialization

International Relations
United Nations
Global Governance
Arms Control and Disarmament
India

Short Bio

Ramesh Thakur is the inaugural Director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Previously, Dr. Thakur was Vice Rector and Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University (and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations) from 1998-2007.

Educated in India and Canada, he was a Professor of International Relations at the University of Otago in New Zealand and Professor and Head of the Peace Research Centre at the Australian National University, during which time he was also a consultant/adviser to the Australian and New Zealand governments on arms control, disarmament and international security issues.

Dr. Thakur was a Commissioner and one of the principal authors of The Responsibility to Protect (2001), and Senior Adviser on Reforms and Principal Writer of the United Nations Secretary-General's second reform report (2002). The author and editor of over thirty books and 300 articles and book chapters, he also writes regularly for quality national and international newspapers around the world. His most recent books include The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect (Cambridge University Press, 2006) -- winner of the ACUNS 2008 award for the best recent book on the United Nations; and War in Our Time: Reflections on Iraq, Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction (United Nations University Press, 2007).

 Recent publications

Global Governance and the United Nations: An Unfinished Journey (with Thomas G. Weiss) (in the UN Intellectual History Project series) (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009)

The United Nations and Nuclear Orders ed. (with Jane Boulden and Thomas G. Weiss) (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2009)

"R2P: From Idea to Norm-and Action?" (with Thomas G. Weiss), Global Responsibility to Protect 1:1 (January-March 2009), pp. 1-32

"United Nations ‘Policy': An Argument with Three Illustrations" (with Thomas G. Weiss), International Studies Perspectives 10:1 (January-April 2009), pp. 18-35

"Global Governance, Five Gaps" (with Thomas G. Weiss), in Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2008 New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Recent academic/professional awards

LL D (h c) 2006, University of Maryland University Colloge
ACUNS (Academic Council on the UN System) 2008 Award for best recent book on the UN system

Courses taught

2009, 2008  International Organizations: The United Nations: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect
2009, 2008, Conflict and Conflict Resolution: Arms Control and Disarmament