The world’s most vulnerable coastal communities are taking action against rising oceans and more severe floods. The Dutch are radically revising traditional flood-management thinking.

With his curly, salt-and-pepper hair and thoughtful demeanor, Chris West looks like just another mid-career professor as he crosses the streets of Oxford University. But West, trained as a zoologist, is more an activist than an academic these days. From his cramped office around the corner from Balliol College, he…

Nuclear questions played a key role in the most widely watched Dutch election in years. During the campaign, Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers eased his stance on atomic power.

$ Chernobyl. In little more than a month, the name of a once obscure Soviet plant has become a global household word, a new entry on the list of late-20th century technological disasters and a rallying cry for all those who fear and oppose nuclear power. The April 26 explosion…

The Dutch Liberal Party seems likely to lose in upcoming elections. Its troubles only increased when Playboy showed Arnoud Cevaal exploring the bared behind of Lorette Welter.

One month before national elections, the listless Dutch Liberal Party seems likely to lose perhaps a third of its 36 seats in the 150-seat parliament. Its troubles only increased when this month’s Dutch edition of Playboy hit the newsstands. The magazine showed two Liberal Party officials partying very liberally…

Social democratic governments are under pressure in Britain, The Netherlands and West Germany. Premier Joop den Uyl’s Cabinet collapsed last week.

It was supposed to be a festive birthday party. The European Community turned 20 last week, and leaders of its nine member states celebrated the anniversary by gathering in the damask-lined hall atop Rome’s Capitoline Hill where the unique organization was born.

But the mood in the hall was…

To the rest of the world, Dutch politics seem sane and stolid — and most of the time it is. Every few years, however, The Netherlands is gripped by a Cabinet crisis.

To the rest of the world, Dutch politics seems as sane and stolid as a Rembrandt burgher — and most of the time it is. Every few years, however, The Netherlands is gripped by a Cabinet crisis that leaves the country rudderless for even longer than customary in Italy or pre-Gaullist…

The net effect of coalitions is usually to dull debates, to narrow ambitions and to blunt the cutting edge of bold politics. In the Netherlands Drees cabinet fell after extending higher taxes.

In most Western European nations these days, no party commands an absolute majority, and most must rule by coalition. The net effect of coalitions is usually to dull debates, to narrow ambitions and to blunt the cutting edge of bold politics. Rivalries that would otherwise be threshed out in the…

Premier Willem Drees, who had run The Netherlands for six uninterrupted years on a welfare-state platform, trotted off to the Queen to resign after a failed rent-increase bill.

Her Majesty Queen Juliana regretted that she would be unable to attend the gala concert of the visiting Philadelphia Orchestra as planned. Late into the evening, Her Majesty would be compelled to spend her time sorting out that most un-Dutch of royal embarrassments: a Cabinet crisis. “A rather unusual phenomenon…

Cremating is illegal in The Netherlands, but it has been tolerated for years in the country’s only crematorium at Velsen. The Dutch Parliament accepted a bill legalizing cremation.

Technically, “the burning of bodies” is illegal in The Netherlands, but in practice it has been tolerated for years in the country’s only crematorium, owned by the Association for Voluntary Cremation, at Velsen, near Amsterdam. Last week the Dutch Parliament debated a government bill legalizing cremation, with these qualifications: 1)…

Catholics in the Netherlands celebrated their restoration as the nation’s biggest party in the last provincial election, polling 31.5% of the votes.

After four years of rule by the Social Christian (Catholic) Party, Belgium last week got a new government, headed by moderate Socialist Achille van Acker, 56, a stubby, ever-smiling ex-basketworker who has been Premier twice before. Presiding over a coalition of Socialists and free-enterprising Liberals, Premier van Acker will control…

The lower house of the Dutch States-General approved a constitutional amendment that eases supranational policies. Dutch are already in the Benelux, Schuman plan and NATO.

It was one of those small actions that hold hopes and promises far greater than mere words. By a 66-to-7 vote, the lower house of the Dutch States-General approved a constitutional amendment that 1) empowers the national government to surrender legislative, administrative and judicial prerogatives to supranational organizations; 2) authorizes…

Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees formed a new government and appointed not one but two Foreign Ministers.

Foreign Ministers, perennially harassed characters, often wish they could be in two places at once. The Netherlands last week did its best to make the trick possible. When Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees formed a new government, after a 65-day cabinet crisis, he appointed not one but two Foreign…

For the first time in The Netherlands’ history, the Socialists became the leading party. Vadertje (Little Father) Drees party got 29% of 5,335,064 votes cast.

Willem Drees is the kind of Socialist the Reds denounce as a “Sewer Socialist.” They are right in a way, for Drees would rather give his people sewers today than promise a proletarian heaven in 1984. Starting 39 years ago as a Socialist councilman in The Hague, Drees ascended the…

In last week’s first postwar Dutch election things were different. The Party of Labor, cutting across religious lines, won 29 out of a 100 seats.

A prewar Dutch election was usually a cut-&-dried affair; the Catholics voted for the Catholic party, the Protestants voted for one of the two big Protestant parties, minor groups shared scattered votes, and that was that.

In last week’s first postwar Dutch election, things were different. Premier Schermerhorn’s new Party…

If reports were true, Wilhelmina, 64, might soon abdicate in favor of her son-in-law, Prince Consort Bernhard. She invited two leaders of the new political forces (Schermerhorn & Drees).

Belgium’s northern neighbor was also royally expectant last week. If reports from The Netherlands were true, Queen Wilhelmina, 64, might soon abdicate in favor of her son-in-law, Prince Consort Bernhard. At the same time she would raise his status from Prince Consort to King. Behind the rumored move were the…

De Geer was asked to form a new cabinet after four Cabinet crises in three months, and said the vote of no confidence was a mistake, since it threatened to continue political chaos.

Last week 69-year-old Jonkheer Dirk Jan de Geer, leader of The Netherlands’ Christian Historical Party, talked like a Dutch uncle to his parliamentary colleagues. They had just turned in a vote of no confidence in old Dr. Hendrikus Colijn, thereby throwing out a Ministry that had lasted two days. Basic…