James Lyon

James Lyon is an accidental Balkanologist, who has studied the Balkans for over thirty-four years. He received a Ph.D. in Modern Balkan History at the University of California, Los Angeles (dissertation: The Forgotten Ally: Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914), an M.A. in International Relations from Brigham Young University (thesis: Yugoslavia’s Post-World War Two Economic Development), and a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Brigham Young University. Dr. Lyon directed Balkan projects for the International Crisis Group for ten years: an accomplished analyst, he has written three books, many scholarly articles, dozens of published reports, numerous Op/Eds, and has testified before the US Congress and parliamentary panels of EU member states. He has twenty years experience in conflict/post-conflict areas of the Balkans, worked on EU and USAID projects and with the Office of the High Representative, as well as in the private sector.

He founded the Foundation for the Preservation of Historical Heritage, which is devoted to digitizing archives in Bosnia and Herzegovina. www.fphh.org He is also an Associate Researcher with the University of Graz in Austria.

He has spent the better part of 20 years living in the lands of the former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, and has worked in Macedonia and Kosovo. He has traveled widely, from Africa to Latin America to the Middle East, and throughout Europe. He currently lives in Belgrade and bounces back and forth to Sarajevo.