Darcy Thompson

• International Relations
• International Development Cooperation (in particular democracy support and democratisation processes)
• Nordic and European Union foreign and development policies
• Peace and conflict (specifically peacebuilding, state-building)
• Development Policies and Practices to the Middle East and North Africa

 Academic Background

• PhD Candidate in International Relations; University of Aberdeen (Ongoing)
• MSc in Global Studies/Political Science; Lund University (2010)
• Honours BA in Political Science; University of Toronto (2007)

Project description

Broadly speaking my research project centres on democracy and the practice of democracy assistance by major international actors. In particular I am investigating the conceptual underpinnings of democracy assistance of different donors, namely the Scandinavian countries, Canada, the UK, the EU and the UNDP. I am interested in understanding how different understandings shape the policies and practices of donors and the impact these policies and practices have. A second sub-investigation within my overarching research project looks at the concept of ‘Nordic exceptionalism’ in international development assistance and explores its validity by looking at the Nordic countries democracy assistance efforts, namely in the Arab world. My research project focuses predominantly on Egypt and examines the above mentioned donor’s democracy support policies and practices currently operating in Egypt.