Geography Matters in Yemen
There are two major yet unrelated conflicts taking place in Yemen.
Nick Ottens
Nick Ottens writes about American and European politics for Atlantic Sentinel and Wynia’s Week. He specializes in the politics of France, the Netherlands and Spain, and is interested in Catalan separatism, drug, energy and housing policy, the future of farming and food, health care and multiparty democracy. He has been published by the Atlantic Council, EUobserver, Spain’s The Corner and World Politics Review.
Nick grew up in the countryside of North Holland and lived in New York and Barcelona. He wrote opinion columns about Catalan politics and the region’s attempted breakaway from Spain for De Standaard of Belgium, the NRC newspaper of the Netherlands and The National Interest. He worked for three political-risk consultancies and a non-profit, XPRIZE, where he designed multimillion-dollar prize competitions to accelerate innovation, including in health care and meat alternatives.
In his spare time, Nick edits the online (alternate) history magazine Never Was and writes about the making of Star Trek for Forgotten Trek. He is a member of the Netherlands’ liberal party, VVD, and its Liberal Green network.
The Environmentalist Gospel
A new, thoroughly twenty-first century threat to domestic harmony is emerging, reports The Independent. “In some relationships, it is said to be causing as much discord as those age-old battlegrounds, sex and money. The problem is environmental incompatibility.” Therapists across America are reporting a sharp increase in what they call “green disputes”. Couples are finding […]
Obama the Jeffersonian
The only constant about President Obama’s foreign policy so far seems to be its reception. Conservatives dread the end of American ascendency and wonder out loud whether Obama is projecting weakness while the Europeans are supposedly upset about the current administration not paying them enough attention. The truth is that a series of early hiccups […]
Economic Freedom in 2010
Free markets are in retreat.
Obama on the Middle East: “Really Hard”
The president admits he may have underestimated the challenges of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Spheres of Waning Influence
Let’s not worry too much about non-Western actors cooperating on their own. The West might even benefit.
The Impossible Joy of Sacrifice
The recent disaster in Haiti has sparked a renewed wave of commentators to demand that men “sacrifice” for the sake of others’ needs. There is little mention of the injustice suffered by the Haitian people at the hands of their own government and, recently, at the hands of nature — which would be legitimate reasons […]
Punishing Banks Won’t Work
The best defense against bank failures isn’t regulation, rather the threat of bankruptcy.
Krugman Says: Spend More!
Since the early days of the Obama Administration, economist Paul Krugman has been more than eager to defend every spending measure enacted by the Democrat.
Tension? What Tension?
Discord between China and the United States should be overstated. Disputes can be resolved.
The Kremlin Two-Step
“Westerners often see Russian politics in terms of a high-level struggle between liberals and conservatives,” observes Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, writing for The Moscow Times. For instance, under President Boris Yeltsin, reformers fought nationalists while under Vladimir Putin, economic liberals opposed the siloviki — a class of politicians that originally served […]
The Government of Whim
“We want our money back,” cried President Obama yesterday, “and we’re going to get it!” Announcing a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee — a tax perfectly named for an era in which banks are held responsible for a recession that was beyond their control — the president promised American taxpayers that they would get “every single […]
Sino-American Relations Still Shaky
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expects a “mature relationship,” but there is still plenty of confusion.
Chávez Shuts Down Shops
Until a few years ago, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez was sometimes described as the benevolent kind but in recent years, his reign has grown ever more authoritarian. He abolished presidential term limits, withdrew Venezuela from both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2007, nationalized the oil industry and built relations with countries […]
Capitalism Under Persecution
Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, capitalism is in recession. Capitalists have become a persecuted minority.