Charles Thepaut

Research Assistant (TOTAL Chair), EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department

work phone: +32-50-47.72.54

Charles Thépaut (FR) is since August 2011 Research Assistant for the TOTAL Chair of EU Foreign Policy at the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department of the College of Europe in Bruges.

He graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille (France) where he studied Public Law and International Relations. In Lille, he wrote his Master Thesis on the transformation of authoritarianism in Syria, taking as a case study the opening of Islamic Banks in the country.

Charles also holds a Master of Arts in EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies from the College of Europe (June 2011). He wrote his second Master Thesis on the reform of the European Neighbourhood Policy in the context of the Arab Spring.

Charles has worked for different public institutions, mostly French local administrations as well as NGOs. He also spent one year and half in Syria, working first as a trainee in charge of the coordination of the French Presidency of the EU in Syria (French Embassy to Damascus - 2008) and then as a consultant for the Delegation of the European Commission in Damascus (2009).

Fields of interest: European external actions and foreign policies, Arab world, Islam, democracy promotion, authoritarianism, civil society, and global governance.

Thépaut, Charles, “Can the EU pressure dictators? Reforming the ENP Conditionality after the Arab Spring”, EU Diplomacy Papers, no. 6/2011, Bruges, College of Europe, October 2011.

Thépaut, Charles, "European Diplomats Abroad: A Diplomatic Corps?", in Quinn, Paul (ed.), Making European Diplomacy Work: Can the EEAS Deliver?, EU Diplomacy Papers, no. 8/2011, Bruges, College of Europe, December 2011

Keukeleire, S., Thépaut, C., "Crise interne, crise externe?", Le Jeu De l'Oie, n°4, December 2011, pp. 36-38

Thépaut, Charles, "L'UE et les soulèvements arabes", Le Jeu De l'Oie, n°4, December 2011, pp. 42-43.