Michael Schulz, co-discussant of the OIC study, is senior lecturer at the School of Global Studies and Director of the Middle East Studies Centre at Gothenburg University. He wrote his PhD in 1996, called Israel between Conflict and Accommodation. Between 1996 and 2003 he worked on a research project called ‘Democracy and State Building in Palestine’. In parallel he also worked with a project named ‘Democratization and Civil Society in the Middle East: Case Studies of the Palestinian Self-Rule Areas and Iraqi Kurdistan’. Currently, he has started a new research project, called ‘Hamas between Sharia rule and Demo-Islam’ that deals with the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas movement’s governance strategies. He has been the Director for a master’s education in Peace and Development studies specifically given to Israeli and Palestinian students at venues in Jerusalem between 1998 and 2003. He has also taken part in various public lectures and evaluations for civil society organizations, and he often serves as mentor for various NGO capacity building projects.