Dr. Nikolai G. Wenzel teaches at several TFAS International programs, including TFAS Santiago and TFAS Prague.
Wenzel is an economics professor at Universidad de las Hesperides and associate research faculty member of the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the former Wallace and Marion Reemelin chair in free-market economics at Hillsdale College, has taught at Florida Gulf Coast University and Flagler College, and has held the L.V. Hackley distinguished professorship for the study of capitalism and free enterprise at Fayetteville State University.
He has a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree cum laude in international affairs from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C.
I think the most valuable thing TFAS teaches is an appreciation for free-market institutions and the institutions of a free society.”
–Dr. Nikolai G. Wenzel
Wenzel is a former foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department. He worked at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, where he was vice consul and special assistant to the U.S. ambassador. He later worked for various Washington, D.C.-area think tanks, including the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Mercatus Center and the Institute for Humane Studies, while completing his doctoral coursework and a dissertation on Argentina’s failed constitution and economy.
Wenzel’s research focuses on constitutional political economy and the institutions that promote human liberty and flourishing, with an emphasis on the role of ideology and culture, the history of ideas and the work of Austrian economist F.A. Hayek. His work has been published in 20-plus journals, including the Review of Austrian Economics, the Journal of Private Enterprise and the Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. He is the co-author of a book on libertarianism versus conservatism, forthcoming from Stanford University Press.
He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and the Board of Scholars of the Foundation for Economic Education. He sat for four years on the executive committee of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, and was honored with the association’s Kent-Aronoff Award for Outstanding Service. He was recently inducted as a Friend of the Arts and Distinguished Member of the SAI Music Fraternity.
Read more in Wenzel’s Featured Professor Profile.