Author / Govin Vatsan

Govin Vatsan is junior in the School of Engineering. He can be reached at gsvatsan@ wustl.edu.
  • Resource Rich, But Still Poor

    BY GOVIN VATSAN Developing countries cope with myriad challenges: they must foster economic growth, maintain government stability, limit corruption, and tolerate religious conflict while shielding themselves from manipulation by foreign powers. These nations thus exist in perpetually fragile states, vulnerable to even the smallest disturbances. When a country in this category discovers natural resources of…

  • How Polarized is America, Really?

    BY GOVIN VATSAN We constantly hear that the United States is becoming too “polar­ized.” The news media point to increasing and uncompromising partisan­ship as the defining character of the Ameri­can political experience, and the basis of a “Culture War.” But while pundits fixate on polarization as the root of our na­tion’s political ills, such sweeping…

  • St. Louis: A Segregated City

    BY GOVIN VATSAN Segregation in the United States has existed since our nation’s inception. Although it has gradually been removed from our laws, segregation still lingers in our society, especially in the inner cities. St. Louis is one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. But just how has this segregation lasted…

  • Just who is Mexican President Enrique Nieto?

      He is the 57th president of Mexico, he took office last December, and his name is Enrique Peña Nieto. President Nieto is the leader of the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which ruled Mexico for 71 continuous years until it lost in 2000 to the National Action Party (PAN). The return of Nieto and…