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.
The Taliban claimed responsibility on Sunday for a nighttime assault on NATO’s largest base in southern Afghanistan. In the second such an attack on a major ISAF installation in one week, insurgents launched rockets, mortar fire and automatic weapons while attempting to storm Kandahar Air Field. Foreign Secretary William Hague of the United Kingdom and […]
With American secretary of state Hillary Clinton underway to the East Asia, a crisis is looming in the waters of the Yellow Sea where a South Korean corvette sunk last March, killing 46. South Koreans authorities have ascertained that a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the sinking. The North has denied any involvement, threatening […]
The Labor Party in the Netherlands supported a parliamentary effort to end Dutch participation in the Joint Strike Fighter Program.
Just one day after winning the Republican nomination for Kentucky’s open Senate seat, Rand Paul appeared on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show to argue that the federal government blurred the lines between public and private ownership when it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Asked by host Rachel Maddow whether Paul believes that a […]
The Conservative prime minister intends to “take power away from politicians and give it to the people.”
The libertarian congressman’s son is running for a Senate seat.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday about the new START treaty signed with Russia last April, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that a draft resolution for sanctions against Iran has been agreed upon by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. According to Clinton, Britain, France and the […]
As Brazil and Turkey reached a nuclear fuel exchange agreement with Iran on Sunday night, the most important lesson to the West may well be that the traditional nuclear powers are no longer alone at their game. According to a joint declaration released on Monday, Iran pledges to deposit 1,200 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched […]
Britain must reinvent its place in the world again after “punching above its weight” for half a century.
When Ian Bremmer predicts “the end of the free market,” he really only has China in mind as an alternative.
With David Cameron installed as prime minister on Tuesday evening, for the first time in almost seventy years the United Kingdom has a coalition government again. Will it hold? Elections in early May produced a hung parliament with the Conservatives just twenty seats short of a majority. Negotiations between Labour and the minority Liberal Democrats […]
Conservative Party leader David Cameron forms a coalition with the liberal party.
Bending the rules of euro management, European leaders and finance ministers agreed to an unprecedented effort to guarantee the stability of the eurozone with loans adding up to nearly $1 trillion (or €750 billion) this weekend. In spite of the multibillion euro rescue package previously pledged to Greece, investors continued to worry about the unsound […]
Commander James Kraska fears that China is set for naval hegemony.
Right-wing voters vent their anger at the chancellor’s support for a Greek bailout.
