Mark Furness is a researcher in the Bi-and Multilateral Development Cooperation department at the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). His current research and policy advisory work focuses on German and EU development policy, development cooperation with the Middle East and North Africa, aid effectiveness, fragile and conflict-affected countries, and crisis response and resilience. He has recently published research articles on policy coherence and the EU's handling of the security-development nexus, as well as development cooperation with Libya. Since 2011, he has been working on a study of German aid in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and an analysis of EU decision-making in the context of the 2015 European Neighbourhood Policy review.