Dr Oliver Hartwich

Learning by comparison

Next week, The New Zealand Initiative will be taking a delegation of more than three dozen senior business leaders to Copenhagen. Our members want to study and experience first-hand what makes Denmark one of the world’s most successful small countries. [...]

Always look on the bright side of Brexit

Monty Python prepared me for the absurdities of British life. Without Monty Python, I would be even more hard-pressed to make sense of Brexit. [...]

Progressive politics, Danish style

Denmark last Wednesday elected a Social Democrat-led government – so what else is new? [...]

Kudos to Winston Peters

Winston Peters’ comments on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre were candid. Where Western politicians have turned not upsetting China over its human rights record into an art form, the Foreign Minister left diplomatic niceties behind. [...]

Making sense of the European elections

If you are a New Zealander watching this strange post-EU elections process with a sense of disbelief from afar, do not be too puzzled: Most Europeans do not understand it either. [...]

Why Huawei?

No wonder Donald Trump is worried about the technological and commercial threat Huawei’s poses to US companies. [...]

Psychological lessons from Australia’s shock election result

For politicians wishing to understand how to use moral psychology to their electoral advantage, there could be no better starting point than re-reading Jonathan Haidt’s 'The Righteous Mind'. [...]

Wende in Down Under

Scott Morrison kam als Übergangs-Premier ins Amt. Mit seinem guten politischen Instinkt dürfte er dort noch lange verweilen. [...]

From localism towards localism: A personal journey of policy discovery

Nothing in my work in Germany, Britain, Australia and now New Zealand has given me reason to doubt my basic beliefs: incentives matter; councils can work effectively when given the right incentives; and decision-making removed from the people it concerns creates problems. [...]