Daniel Thomas
Professor of International Relations
- Name
- Prof.dr. D.C. Thomas
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 1263
- d.c.thomas@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-5556-037X
Daniel Thomas is Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science.
Short CV
Daniel Thomas is Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University.
He served as head (‘scientific director’) of the Institute of Political Science in 2017-2020 and is co-founding director of the Leiden University Centre for International Relations (LUCIR). He also serves on the Steering Committees of the university’s Europe Hub and the university’s programme on Global Transformation and Governance Challenges (GTGC).
He was trained in Political Science at Brandeis University (BA) and Cornell University (MA, PhD). Before coming to Leiden, he held research and teaching positions at the European University Institute, Harvard University, Stanford University, University College Dublin, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Pittsburgh, and Williams College.
He has also worked in Brussels on international human rights and criminal justice issues at the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations (precursor to the European External Action Service).
Research
His research focuses on the sources, evolution and effects of international norms and institutions, especially as they relate to the politics of human rights, regional integration, and EU decision-making on foreign policy and enlargement policy. Among his current projects, he is collaborating with Karolina Pomorska on a multi-paper study of the protean power of Europe—in other words, how the EU responds to unforeseen external developments through policy innovation and institutional transformation.
His latest book—The Limits of Europe: Membership Norms and the Contestation of Regional Integration (Oxford)—uses multiple methods (normative genealogy, statistical regression, qualitative comparative analysis, process-tracing) to demonstrate how evolving normative definitions of Europe as a political community shaped EU decision-making on enlargement from the late 1950s to the present, with a detailed focus on policies toward Greece, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.
He has also published The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights and the Demise of Communism (Princeton), Making EU Foreign Policy: National Preferences, European Norms and Common Policies (Palgrave), Negotiation Theory and the EU: The State of the Art (Routledge), World Security (St. Martin’s), and Peace and World Order Studies (Westview), plus journal articles and book chapters.
Teaching
He teaches courses on theories of international relations and the dynamics of international organisation, and supervises research students in these and related fields.
PhD supervision
Daniel Thomas is available to supervise PhD students and invites PhD research proposals in the areas of:
- international relations
- international organisation
- European integration
- politics of human rights
See for more information on PhD positions:
Professor of International Relations
- Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
- Instituut Politieke Wetenschap
- Thomas D.C. (2021), The Limits of Europe: Membership Norms and the Contestation of Regional Integration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Thomas D.C. (2021), The return of intergovernmentalism?: De-Europeanisation and EU foreign policy decision-making, Journal of European Integration 43(5): 619-635.
- Thomas D.C. (2020), The Return of Intergovernmentalism? De-Europeanisation and EU Foreign Policy Decision-making. . Vienna: COST Workshop on De-Europeanization and EU Foreign Policy.
- Thomas D.C. & Statsch P.D. (2018), EU Decision-Making on Membership Eligibility: A Statistical Analysis. European Union in International Affairs conference 2018 16 May 2018 - 18 May 2018. Brussels: European Union in International Affairs conference 2018.
- Thomas D.C. & Statsch P.D. (2018), EU Membership Norms and Decision-Making on Membership Eligibility. 114th APSA Annual Meeting 30 August 2018 - 2 September 2018. Boston: American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2018.
- Thomas D.C. (2017), Beyond identity: Membership norms and regional organization, European Journal of International Relations 23(1): 217-240.
- Thomas D.C. & Statsch P.D. (2017), EU Decision-making on Membership Eligibility: A Statistical Analysis. Jean Monnet Alumni Conference @ 25, European University Institute, Florence. Jean Monnet Alumni Conference @ 25, European University Institute 22 June 2017 - 23 June 2017.
- Thomas D. (2015), Norms and change in regional identity formation: the contested limits of European community. Paper presented at the workshop on comparative approaches to identity change of the ECPR Joint Sessions, Warsaw, 29 March - 2 April 2015. ECPR Joint Sessions 29 March 2015 - 2 April 2015. Warsaw.
- Thomas D.C. (2014), Past is not prologue: Why Turkey’s EU candidacy is unlikely to succeed. Conference of Europeanists. Washington, DC: Council for European Studies.
- Thomac D.C. (2014), Past is not prologue: Why Turkey’s EU candidacy is unlikely to succeed. Paper presented at the ECPR Standing Group on the EU, The Hague. .