Ramesh Thakur is a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations. He was a commissioner and one of the principal authors of the Responsibility to Protect and principal writer of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s second reform report, as well as co-convener of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. Thakur is currently emeritus professor at The Australian National University. His books include Global Governance and the UN: An Unfinished Journey; The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy; Nuclear Weapons and International Security: Selected Essays; and The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect.