Daniel Thomas

Biography

Daniel Thomas is Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Sciences at Leiden University and Visiting Professor at University College Dublin. Before coming to Leiden, he studied at Brandeis University (BA) and Cornell University (MA, PhD), and 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 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). He teaches courses on theories of international relations, international cooperation and institutions, and the transnational politics of human rights, and supervises research students in these and related fields.

Research Interest

His research focuses on the sources, evolution and effects of international norms and institutions, especially as they relate to the politics of human rights and regional integration. He is currently completing a major research project on how evolving normative definitions of the limits of Europe shaped EU decision-making on enlargement from the late 1950s to the present. He is also author of The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights and the Demise of Communism (Princeton), editor of 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 book chapters and journal articles.