James hails from Abease, a small village in the Pru District of  Ghana-West Africa. He completed his Bachelor of Arts study  in Political Science with first class (Honours) from the University of Ghana in 2005. He was appointed a Teaching and Research Assitant at the Department of Political Science, in the University in 2006. In 2007, he was awarded Erasmus Mundus scholarship by the European Commission to pursue  Master’s degree in Public Policy (MUNDUS MAPP) – which he successfully completed in 2009 obtaining double Master‘s degree from University of York (United Kingdom) and Central European University (Hungary). He is developing specialisation in analysing European Union‘s trade and development aid policies with the African, Caribbean and the Pacific countries and looking forward to enriching his expertise on the EU trade and development policies globally.

Title of research project: European Union's External Trade Negotiations: A Comparative Analysis of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) With ECOWAS and CARIFORUM

Supervisor: Professor Wolfgang Wessels (University of Cologne)

Co-Supervisor: Dr Chad Damro (University of Edinburgh)

With the competence of negotiating trade policies for Member States, the European Commission has been engaging members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states in the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) since 2002/2003. The outcome has been mixed with some relatively successful agreement with the Caribbean economic bloc (CARIFORUM) as planned while difficulties abound with other negotiations such as with the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS). What explains the differences in the negotiation outcomes? This research will dilate on the outcomes of the EPAs negotiations so far reflecting on EU institutional and policy formulation dynamics. It seeks to investigate the procedures and processes underpinning the EPAs negotiations as well as the actors involved and the kind of influence they exert on the negotiations processes. The study also seeks to discover how the EU have sought to achieve its  external policy goals and in what ways such approaches could be improved from a comparative perspective using the case of ECOWAS and CARIFORUM EPAs negotiations against the backdrop of Market Power Europe conception.

EXACT Initial Conference, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 21 October 2010 Study trip to Brussels, visiting CEPS and meeting with officials of the Council of the EU, October 25-29.  EXACT PhD Seminar on Methodology with Dr Anne Faber

TEPSA Pre-Presidency Conference: Entering the New Decade: New Challenges and Priorities for the EU under the Hungarian Council Presidency, 2-3 December 2010,  Budapest, Hungary. 

EXACT Study Trip, University of Edinburgh, Scotland 9-10 December 2010
One day conference on Legal Perspective of PhD Topics, at the University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands, January 16

Berlin Workshop –‘CFSP one year after the Lisbon Treaty’  18-19 January 2011

EXACT Rhetoric Course/Workshop “Public Speaking”- University of Cologne, 3 February 2011

Study Visit to German Development Institute (DIE-GDI), Bonn, 15 February 2011. Also visited the Museum of German History in Bonn, Germany

Workshop on “the future of EU trade policy" organised by Directorate General for External Policies and Policy Department and Committee on International Trade, European Parliament, Brussels 15 March 2011. See the summary report


EXACT & MERCURY conference “The EU in the World: Conflict resolution, development, and cooperation” Charles University of Prague, 23 - 25 March 2011

Presented a paper on "European Union's Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific Countries: A Case of Market Power Europe?" during a Graduate Conference on “Taking the European Union into the 21^st Century; History, Challenges and Debates” organised by European Union Centre of Excellence, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 9 April 2011

Participant in Development Policy Forum (DPF) Roundtable, Europe’s Development Policy Comes of Age, Organised by Friends of Europe, Brussels-Belgium 17 May 2011 

Appointed as Student Expert for Expert Workshop on Quality Assurance,(using EUA's Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP)) as an Approach. Organised by AAU and EUA in the framework of “Europe-Africa Quality Connect project’’ Dublin, Ireland, 4-6 May 2011. See Institutional Evaluation Programme’s (IEP) for more information on the approach

Participant in a seminar European Information Management - Europe on the Internet - Finding your Way through the European Information Jungle, organised by EIPA, 20-21 June 2011

Presented a Paper on "European Union's Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific Countries: A Case of Market Power Europe?" during “New Frontiers in European Studies: UACES Student Forum” 12th Annual Conference, University of Surrey, 30 June – 1 July 2011.

Elite Interviews in Brussels on Inter-institutional Decision Making Procedures on EU-ACP EPA Negotiations, 25^th July – 4^th August 2011.
EXACT Ph.D. workshop “The EU and its Neighbourhood – Current Challenges and Conflicts” On Wednesday, 7 September 2011, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Helsinki, Finland 

LISBOAN PhD Summer School, Europe in the World 2011, 12-25 September 2011, University of Crete, Greece

MERCURY joint conference and EXACT Network Seminar on Professional Skills , 4-19 Oct.2011 Brussels

Visiting Ahmadou Bello University, Nigeria as part of a Team of Quality Assurance Experts in the framework of EU-Africa Quality Connect Project, 22-26 October 2011.