Nick Ottens is a public affairs officer for the Dutch Animal Coalition and a board member for Liberal Green, the sustainability network of the Dutch liberal party VVD. He is a former political risk consultant and a former research manager for XPRIZE, where he designed prize competitions to incentivize breakthrough innovation in agriculture, food and health care. He has also worked as a journalist in Amsterdam, Barcelona and New York for EUobserver, NRC, Trouw, World Politics Review and Wynia’s Week, among others.
After the Israeli Navy intercepted six vessels attempting to circumvent its blockade of the Gaza Strip two weeks ago and killed at least nine on board in the onslaught that ensued, international condemnation came swiftly. Israel doesn’t have to care particularly. Fierce reactions could be expected from the Arab world. Protests broke out in different […]
The United States Congress has enacting “the toughest financial reform since the one we created in the aftermath of the Great Depression,” said President Barack Obama on Friday. The sprawling legislation promises transparency and oversight while providing government with new tools that it can use to liquidate failing firms. In spite of calls to break […]
After the election of the conservative Fidesz party in Hungary last month, neighboring Slovakia is also taking a right turn, evicting the imcumbent prime minister in favor of an array of small parties campaigning of a platform of free-market capitalism and ethnic harmony. Since the ascendance of a right-wing coalition in September 2002, Slovakia has […]
The American president calls for more deficit spending. European countries are skeptical.
General Stanley McChrystal’s replacement reflects a “change in personnel,” according to the president, “not in policy.”
Forget terrorism and a nuclear Iran; the biggest threat to Persian Gulf countries is their economy.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivered his first budget last week, outlining his plans to “balance the books” by 2016. Tax increases and benefit cuts are tough but “unavoidable,” said Osborne. Britian’s coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will raise the main value-added tax rate from 17.5 to 20 percent next year. Taxes […]
Strict drug laws cause more harm than the drugs.
Well past their April deadline, House Democrats have yet to introduce a federal budget for the next fiscal year.
As the Democrats are expected to use BP’s oil spill to push for stricter regulation of business in the United States, left-wing commentators are wondering why even the disaster in the Gulf won’t convince small-government conservatives. The Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — which rarely urges passage of specific legislation — both […]
Barack Obama’s chief of staff is reportedly frustrated about the lack of pragmatism in the White House.
France is prepared to start negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program within the International Atomic Energy Agency “without delay,” said President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday while meeting with his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev. A spokesman for Sarkozy’s office said the talks would be held “on the basis of Brazilian and Turkish efforts and the […]
A corporate tax cut would improve Japan’s competitiveness among industrialized nations.
Former prime minister Dominique de Villepin announces he will run for president in 2012 on his own platform.
Liberal commentator Chris Matthews investigates the Tea Party movement.
