Professor Ramesh Thakur is the Vice Rector (Peace and Governance) of the United Nations University in Tokyo. He received his education in India (BA Hons, University of Calcutta) and Canada (MA, Ph D, Queen's University in Kingston). He was formerly Professor and Head of the Peace Research Centre at the Australian University in Canberra (1995 - 98); and Professor of International Relations and Director of Asian Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand (1980 - 95). He was a member of the National Consultative Committee on Peace and Disarmament in Australia, having previously been a member of the Public Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament in New Zealand. He is the author/editor of over a dozen books, the most recent being Keeping Proliferation at Bay (1998), Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain: The United Nations at Fifty (1998), and Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones (1998). He has written some 130 articles for journals and chapters for books, including 'India in the World: Neither Rich, Powerful, nor Principled', Foreign Affairs (July/August 1997). He also writes periodically for the quality press, including the Australian, the Australian Financial Review, the Asian Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, and the Japan Times.