Person

My research field broadly speaking is the ‘political economy of development’ in the Middle East. In particular I focus on Egypt and democracy assistance efforts by foreign donors, and look at how this idea of ‘democracy promotion’ is conceptualised, and practiced. My research project investigates the conceptual underpinnings of democracy assistance of the Scandinavian countries, Canada, the UK, and the EU.

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 is based on field work I have conducted in Egypt over the course of the last four years, investigating the democracy support policies and practices of the above mentioned donors, which are being carried out in Egypt.

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

Academic Background

• PhD Candidate (On-going)
• MSc in Global Studies/Political Science; Lund University (2010)
• Honours BA in Political Science; University of Toronto (2007)

Articles (2)

• Eklund, L. & Thompson, D. (2017). Differences in resource management affects drought vulnerability across the borders between Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Ecology and Society, 22. The Resilience Alliance.
  • External full text
• Thompson, D. & Teti, A. (2013). EU Democracy Assistance Discourse in the New Response To a Changing Neighbourhood. Democracy and Security, 9, 1-19. Taylor & Francis.

Conference contributions (2)

• Thompson, D. (2013). Liberalising Local Empowerment in Egypt: Foreign Funding and the Freedom to ‘Democratise’.
• Thompson, D. (2011). European Democracy Promotion: Positive Policies, Poor Practice.

Articles in specialist publications and popular press (1)

• Eklund, L. & Thompson, D. (2017). Is Syria really a ‘climate war’? We examined the links between drought, migration and conflict. The Conversation. The Conversation.
  • External full text

• MOSE16, Middle Eastern Studies: The Modern History of the Middle East from World War I until Today