James Pettifer is a British academic, author and journalist who has specialised in Balkan affairs.

He was born in 1949 in Hereford

Hereford

Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...

 and was educated at King's School

The King's School, Worcester

The King's School, Worcester is an English independent school refounded by Henry VIII in 1541. It occupies a site adjacent to Worcester Cathedral on the banks of the River Severn in the centre of the city of Worcester...

, Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, and Hertford College, Oxford

Hertford College, Oxford

Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is located in Catte Street, directly opposite the main entrance of the original Bodleian Library. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m. There are 612 students , plus various visiting...

.

Pettifer has travelled extensively in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and the Balkans and he has written several tourist guides to the region, including the Blue Guide to Albania and Kosovo, one of the few such guides to the area. In the media, he has reported mainly for The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 and the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

 and he is a regular broadcaster and commentator on the Balkan countries on both radio and television. He is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs

Chatham House

Chatham House, formally known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's leading...

.

His expertise has been employed academically. He was a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford, from 1993 to 1996 and a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Balkan Studies, University of Thessaloniki and a Research Fellow of the European Research Institute, University of Bath

University of Bath

The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....

. Pettifer is a professor at the Conflict Studies Research Centre

Conflict Studies Research Centre

The Conflict Studies Research Centre, or CSRC, was a component of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, based at Shrivenham. It specialised in potential causes of conflict in a wide area ranging from the Baltics to Central Asia....

 of the United Kingdom Defence Academy, where he has submitted papers on Balkan topics, and is a visiting professor in the State University of Tetovo's history department.

Works

Pettifer's published work includes:

• Blue Guide Greece: The Mainland (with Sherry Marker)
• The Albanian Question: Reshaping the Balkans (with Miranda Vickers)
• Blue Guide Albania and Kosovo
• Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity (with Miranda Vickers)
• The Greeks
• Blue Guide Bulgaria
• Turkish Labyrinth
• Kosova Express: A Journey in Wartime
• The New Macedonian Question
• Dialogue with Hashim Thaci