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.
Commentators and intellectuals on the left continue to grapple while trying to figure out the Tea Party phenomenon. For some time they could be dismissed as racist or just plain dumb but such criticism is harder to sustain no with research showing that the 18 percent or so of Americans who identify as supporters of […]
The Pentagon recently reported to Congress (PDF) that violence in Afghanistan between October 2009 and March of this year has risen sharply, with so much as 87 percent in fact compared to the same period last year. Insurgent attacks increased throughout 2009 to peak in August just before the country’s presidential election. Most activity has […]
Richard Weitz of the conservative Hudson Institute reports that increasingly China is relying on home industries to provide high tech weaponry rather than buying arms from Russia. Since 2001, Russia has sold over $16 billion worth of arms to China, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all major Russian arms sales. In recent years, however, […]
Americans seem to forget Europe is not a federation like the United States.
Neither of the three largest parties have a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
David Cameron’s Conservative Party will fall just seventeen seats short of a parliamentary majority, according to a joint poll conducted by major British broadcasters. The Conservatives are set to win almost a hundred more seats than they gained in 2005, possibly up to 305. Labour would have 255 while the Liberal Democrats, in spite of […]
The vice president talks about climate change, data-sharing, Iran and missile defense.
Greece must cut its deficit to qualify for a European bailout.
The defense secretary urges the navy the wonder whether it really needs all its aircraft carriers.
The European map is outdated and illogical. Rejigging it would make life friendlier.
Except for China, there hasn’t been an economic success story in history that wasn’t built on free markets.
The New York Times predicts desperate times ahead for America’s youngsters. The recession has diminished most of the remaining part-time job opportunities previously available to young people during the summer, “despite a summer jobs program that was paid for through the stimulus package.” The problem is severest in poor, minority communities. “Those are the places […]
The flamboyant Italian prime minister has survived numerous scandals but his time appears to be running out.
In opposition to “big government” and the British welfare state, the Conservative Party under David Cameron has come up with an alternative approach — “big society.” What does it mean? According to the Conservatives’ website, they favor a society based on “social responsibility and community action.” They promise that under a Conservative government, “charities, voluntary […]
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre boasted in The Wall Street Journel last week that his company paid back its government bailout “in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule.” GM has subsequently began running advertisements promoting its financial responsibility while proponents of the bailouts are yelling, “I told you so!” But, writing for Forbes, Shikha […]
