Dr. Muhammad Danial Bin Azman

Biography

Danial holds a PhD in International Relations specialising in African Studies from the University of St Andrews, the UK under a supervision of eminent expert of African Politics and Critical Political Economy, Professor Ian Taylor (DPhil, Stellenbosch). Danial Successfully defended his doctoral thesis, Resolving the Postelection Violence and Building Transitional Justice Institutions: 'Power' and 'Ideology' in Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation - A Justice without Punishment? His thesis was examined by Gabrielle Lynch (DPhil, Oxford), Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Warwick and Anthony F. Lang Jr. (PhD, John Hopkins), Professor of International Legal and Political Theory, and Director of Centre for Global Constitutionalism, UK. Apart from his doctorate training in England and Scotland, Danial has conducted extensive field works in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana. Additionally, he had spent few months of his study visits in Northern Ireland, the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Danial primary research, teaching and supervision interests as follows: African Politics and International Relations - Examining the question of 'agency' and 'structure' in African politics. In this respect, Danial is interested in considering the Africa's interactions with its external actors (state and none-state). He is also interested in using the current debates on the popular uprisings, transitional justice, liberal peacebuilding, power sharing, electoral politics, governance, regionalism, international interventions, foreign relations and other democratic and humanitarian crises as a primary object of analysis in order to illuminate the political logic of widespread functions of post-colonial discourses among the African elites, and how such discourses were used to instrumentalise the projection of the 'state', 'authority', 'security' and 'sovereignty'. The Politics of Post-conflict Justice, International Tribunal and Peacebuilding - Examining the sociopolitical significance of the legal and none-legal mechanisms in the world politics, and what does it mean to International Relations. In this aspect, Danial is interested in explaining how transitional justice discourses is becoming part of the democratisation debates in Africa rather than signifying a clear political transition (regime change), as previously occurred in Latin America and Eastern Europe (Third Waves of democratisation). Additionally, Danial is currently interested in contextualising (through discourse analysis) the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) and other post-conflict cases that involved the interaction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in order to understand the connection of such liberal cosmopolitan institutions with the 'local sense' (everyday) understanding of justice and reconciliation (bottom- up approaches). This is part of his broader interest in challenging the legal positivist and reductionist paradigms and highlighting the Critical Legal Studies relevance in Transitional Justice theories and Liberal Peacebuilding. Political Economy of the Africa-Southeast Asia Relations - Danial is interested in exploring the dynamics and significance of African states and societies in the construction of public and private policies among the Southeast Asian countries. 

Research Interest

Conflict Resolution (Political Economy of Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Reconstruction Policy, and Critical Approach to Peace Studies (Post-Liberal Peace)) Political Theory and Political Philosophy (Peace and Conflict Theories, Discourse Analysis and Phenomenology of Violence in International Relations) Human Rights (Transitional Justice, Reconciliation Studies and the International Criminal Court's Intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa) International Relations (Politics and International Relations of Sub-Saharan Africa)