Vivien Collingwood

I am a freelance English-language editor, copywriter and Dutch-to-English translator. I have been living in the Netherlands since 2003, and have been working as a full-time language professional since 2007.

Previously, I worked in the academic and non-governmental sectors. I trained as a historian and political scientist, gaining a BA (1998) in History from the University of Cambridge, and an M.Phil. (2001) and D.Phil. (2004) in International Relations from the University of Oxford. 

In 2004-2005 I worked with academics at the University of Tilburg on a programme on international NGOs and legitimacy.  In 2006-2007 I worked for the Dutch branch of Médicins sans Frontières as Assistant to the General Director and Director of Operations.

My doctoral research focused on the use of political conditionality in aid policy.  I have a long-standing interest in the politics of foreign aid and development assistance, and have acted as a consultant on development issues for the Bretton Woods Project and Oxford Analytica.

I am a full member of SENSE, the Society of English-Native-Speaking Editors in the Netherlands.

Publications 

Contributions to books:

• ‘The G7/G8’, in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics ed. Iain Mclean and Alistair Macmillan, 3rd edition (Oxford: OUP, 2009).
• with Louis Logister, ‘Perceptions of the legitimacy of NGOs’, in A.Vedder (ed.), NGO Involvement in International Government and Policy, (Martinus Nijhoff: November 2007).

 
Articles:

• ‘Non-governmental organisations, power and legitimacy in international society’, Review of International Studies (July 2006).
• with L. Logister, ‘State of the art: addressing the INGO “legitimacy deficit”’, Political Studies Review (volume 3, 2005).
• with L. Logister, ‘Globalisering en de legitimiteit van NGO’s’, Filosofie & Praktijk (26/4, 2005).
• ‘Assistance with fewer strings attached’, Ethics and International Affairs 17/1 (2003). 

Published translations: 

• A. van den Borne & K. Kloosterboer, Investigating exploitation: research into trafficking in children in the Netherlands (Amsterdam; Stichting Defence for Children International The Netherlands, 2005).

Reports, briefing papers, book reviews:

• ‘Review: Wim van der Donk et al’s “Cyberprotest: New media, citizens, and social movements’, Information Polity 9/3,4 (2005).
• ‘Review: Charles Lipson’s “Reliable partners: How democracies have made a separate peace”’, Journal of European Affairs 2/1 (February 2004).
• ‘Indispensable or unworkable?  The IMF’s new approach to conditionality’, Bretton Woods Project Briefing Paper (2003).
• ‘Power and values in American Foreign Policy’, Oxford Analytica Daily Brief 3 October 2002.

Conference papers and presentations include:

• 'Relief agencies and the problem of improving accountability to beneficiaries', presented to Expert Workshop on the Accountability and Legitimacy of NGOs, Bremen University, 13 October 2007.
• with L. Logister, ‘Globalisation and the legitimacy of NGOs: Perceptions of legitimacy from NGOs and their stakeholders’, presented to the IVR World Congress in Legal Philosophy, 24-29 May 2005.
• ‘Non-governmental organisations and legitimacy in international society’, presented to the British International Studies Association (BISA) annual conference, Warwick University, UK, 21 December 2004.
• ‘Power and conditionality in global governance’, presented to the Fifth Pan-European International Relations Conference, The Hague, Netherlands, 10 September 2004.
• ‘Conditionality in international politics: Exploring the relationship between law and power’, presented to the Centre for Transboundary Legal Development, Tilburg University, Netherlands, 9 June 2004.