David Bruce MacDonald (born 15 June 1973 ) is a Canadian political scientist who studies international relations, genocide, and political myths.

Career

MacDonald is professor in Political Science at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and served as the Research Leadership Chair for the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences (2017 to 2020). From 2002 to 2008, he worked as a senior lecturer at the Political Studies Department, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. From 1999 to 2002 he was Assistant Visiting Professor in the Social Sciences at the ECSP Europe (Paris). He was deputy editor/book reviews editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies. He holds a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics LSE, which he attended as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. His PhD thesis was entitled Balkan holocausts? Comparing genocide myths and historical revisionism in Serbian and Croatian nationalist writing: 1986-1999. He earned his BA from Carleton University, and his MA in political science from the University of Ottawa. MacDonald has contributed as a writer to multiple Canadian journalistic publications, such as The Globe and Mail, ''The National Post, and the Toronto Star.

Areas of work

Former Yugoslavia

His first book Balkan Holocausts?: Serbian and Croatian Victim Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia, compares and contrasts Serbian and Croatian propaganda from 1986 to 1999, analyzing each group's contemporary interpretations of history and current events.

Identity politics and genocide

Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide examined how Holocaust "Americanization" impacted other ethnic and social groups. The book featured theoretical chapters about the use/misuse of the term (Holocaust) by ethnic and social groups, and dissected claims of Holocaust uniqueness (with analysis of fourteen arguments).

U.S. politics

Thinking History, Fighting Evil applies his theoretical work to the study of American domestic and foreign policy. The presents the most thorough exploration to date of how World War II analogies, particularly those focused on the Holocaust, have colored American foreign policy-making after 9/11.

Publications

Books

Selected Book Chapters

Selected Articles

Sources