Ahmed Badawi: Making Sense of International Development from a Critical Perspective as Co-Executive Director of Transform: Centre for Conflict Engagement and Political Development.

The postgraduate programme I studied at SOAS has helped me to make sense of international development from a critical perspective and I am continuing to build upon the knowledge that I gained during my studies. Having had the opportunity to study in the UK has changed my life completely. Since then, I have been pursuing a research career which would not have been possible without the MBI Al Jaber Foundation's scholarship award. Those times in London, at SOAS, were the beginning of a great “empowering” adventure for me and I will always be grateful for such a unique opportunity.

Since completing an MSc in Developmental Studies at SOAS in 2001, I have been very busy putting my studies to good use in a number of different roles, mostly in the academic world. I worked as a Research Associate at the Middle East unit of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik), as well as carrying out research at the Institute of Development and Peace, University of Duisburg-Essen, where I co-directed the project ‘Beyond Managing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Towards a New People-to-People Agenda’. I returned to the UK in 2007 to work as a Project Director (Israel/Palestine) at the Oxford Research Group, after which I became a Research Associate at ZentrumModerner Orient, where I focused on the policy-relevant representations of the West held by contemporary Egyptian Islamists. Currently, I am the Co-executive Director of Transform: Centre for Conflict Engagement and Political Development , a Berlin-based organisation which I co-founded in 2007. Transform-centre website. I continued with my studies at Humboldt University and was awarded a PhD in Political Science in 2011. My thesis focused on the evolution of democracy in the United States and its promotion abroad since the drafting of the American Constitution. Please see below my published chapters and research papers:

Publications

Chapters in books:
Badawi, Ahmed; Sipes, Brandon and Sternberg, Michael (2013) “From Antagonism to Resonance: Some Methodological Insights and Dilemmas,” in Rothman, Jay (ed.) From Identity-based Conflict to Identity-based Cooperation, New York: Springer.

Published Papers
Birk, Michaela and Badawi, Ahmed (2010) “Bedeutung und Wandel der Arabischen Friedensinitiative,” in Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 9/2010, pp. 35-41.
Badawi, Ahmed and Kratt, Heike (2004) “Human Rights Violations in Palestine: Incentive Structures as Causes?” in Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights, (a special issue), Vol. 8, No. 2, March 2004, pp. 79-106.
Badawi, Ahmed (2003) “Policy Failure, Power Relations and the Dynamics of Elite Change in Palestine,” in Orient, Volume 4/2003, pp. 555-577.
Badawi, Ahmed (2002) “Determinants of Change in Elite Behaviour and Relative Influence in Palestine: A Preliminary Review of Evidence,” in Perthes, Volker (ed.), Elitenwandel in der arabischen Welt und Iran, SWP-Studie, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin, December 2002.
Badawi, Ahmed and Kratt, Heike (2004) "Human Rights Violations in Palestine: Incentive Structures as Causes?", in Mediterranean Journal of Human Rights, (a special issue), Vol. 8, No. 2, March 2004