Nichrome wire not heating up in circuit
At 12V your current would be 54A, so the current protection is definitely kicking in, and your voltage will not be anything close to 12V. 

If your current is 1A, your heat will be 200mW, which should at least be warm.

It's possible that your power supply is deciding that the resistance is so low that there must be a short, and not delivering any power. It's also possible that your power supply can't physically output that low a voltage (at 1 amp, the voltage would be 0.219V), and again is just deciding to turn off instead.

edit: what you need is a higher current supply, or a longer wire.

As  Harry Svensson says, the resistance will increase as the temperature increases, but your power supply still needs to be able to supply the initial power required to get it to that temperature.