Tag Archives: Robert Amsterdam

The Kim Dotcom / Megaupload White Paper

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: May 7, 2013
kim-dotcom-robert-amsterdam-white-paper

Today we are proud to announce the launch of the White Paper “Megaupload, the Copyright Lobby, and the Future of Digital Rights: The United States vs. You (and Kim Dotcom).

Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

George Tadonki’s Courage

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: April 4, 2013
Cholera patients hold cups of sugar solution as they rest inside a ward Budiriro Polyclinic in Harare

Tadonki brought a wrongful termination claim against the UN after the organization effectively fired him in early 2009. The UN’s bulletproof legal immunity necessitates an unusual system for adjudicating such cases. Because the UN cannot be sued, tribunals convened by the UN itself deal with employment claims, pseudo-courts that don’t adhere to several important aspects of accepted U.S. and European legal procedure.

Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Rumble in the Congo

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: March 22, 2013
robert-amsterdam-congo-drc-mining

It’s one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of precious metals and natural resources. It’s also an ungoverned Wild West drawing in competing militias into prolonged bloody wars, and soon, possibly the neighboring states competing for influence. Welcome to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Russia’s Housing Crisis A Driver of Public Discontent

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: February 8, 2013
russia-housing-robert-amsterdam

People protest for many different reasons. In Russia, could the dire housing situation be the next major cause of public discontent with Vladimir Putin?

Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

The 2013 Resource Nationalism Checklist

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: January 9, 2013

The list is our attempt to respond to what we see as a relatively underdeveloped marketplace of ideas when it comes to scenario planning for expropriation, unfair regulatory intervention, nationalizations, and resource nationalism events that have an impact on foreign investors in emerging markets.

Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

The Kremlin’s Criminal Treatment of Russian Orphans

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: December 26, 2012

No one wanted to believe that Russia would actually go through with a cruel law to make it hard for orphans to find homes, but the appetite for revenge is high.

Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

Pray for Chávez (Really)

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: December 20, 2012

Writing at the Weekly Standard, Vanessa Neumann re-emphasizes the reason why, for the sake of Venezuela’s future, you should root for Hugo Chávez to come back to see his system of governance completely destroyed by the disaster he created.  If not, there is the risk of martyrdom, because whomever is going to be the next [...]

Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Rule of Law Under Attack in Zambia

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: December 20, 2012

“For my friends, anything; for my enemies, the law.” In Zambia, Michael Sata is using anti-corruption as a tool to eliminate multiparty democracy.

Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Russia’s New Normal, or How Putin is Winning the War against Irony

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: December 20, 2012

Putin’s performance during a 4.5 hour press conference is impressive, for all the wrong reasons. Have we misplaced our sense of irony?

Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Minimising Political Risk in Frontier Markets

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: December 17, 2012

From Venezuela to South Africa to Indonesia, we have observed policies of resource nationalism that respond to ideological imperatives. In Canada and Australia similar problems arise out of suddenly aggressive tax regimes based on financial imperatives. And lastly, in challenging markets such as Central Asia as well as China, you have risks of state intervention guided by arcane clan politics and internal power dynamics.

Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed