London School of Economics

Faculty Member, European Institute

Senior Research Fellow in the Politics of South East Europe

About

James Ker-Lindsay is Eurobank EFG Senior Research Fellow on the Politics of South East Europe at the LSE where he works on issues relating to conflict, peace and security in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean.

His authored books include, 'Kosovo: The Path to Contested Statehood in the Balkans' (2009, paperback forthcoming), 'Crisis and Conciliation: A Year of Rapprochement between Greece and Turkey' (2007), 'EU Accession and UN Peacemaking in Cyprus' (2005), and 'Britain and the Cyprus Crisis, 1963-1964' (2004). His most recent work, 'The Cyprus Problem: What Everyone Needs to Know', was published by Oxford University Press in April 2011. He has also co-edited a number of volumes, such as, 'New Perspectives on Yugoslavia: Key Issues and Controversies' (2010, Routledge, with Dejan Djokic); 'The Government and Politics of Cyprus' (2009, Peter Lang, with Hubert Faustmann), and 'The Work of the United Nations in Cyprus' (2001, Palgrave Macmillan, with Oliver Richmond). A further co-edited volume, An Island in Europe: The EU and the Transformation of Cyprus (I.B.Tauris, co-edited with Hubert Faustmann and Fiona Mullen), was recently published.

In terms of academic activities, he has served as the co-editor of The Cyprus Review and is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies and Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group on South East Europe and was formerly co-convenor of the British International Studies Association (BISA) Working Group on South East Europe.

In addition to his academic work, he has undertaken regular media commentary and analysis. He has written for Jane's Foreign Report and the Economist Intelligence Unit (Cyprus politics correspondent 2001-2006), he has been cited by many leading news sources, including BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, The Economist, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Wall Street Journal. He also has extensive experience in public and private sector consulting and advising and has a practical background in conflict analysis and resolution, having served as the co-ordinator of the Greek-Turkish Forum, a peace support initiative run by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), where he was based, and the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO).

His research has explored the development and management of a range of peace processes in South East Europe, such as the UN initiatives to reunite Cyprus, Greek-Turkish rapprochement and the Kosovo status process. This has led to a wider interest in the ways in which international actors handle, or mishandle, complex negotiations. More recently, he has started to examine 'the foreign policy of counter-secession'. This new area of study explores and analyses the legal, political and diplomatic tactics and tools states use to try to prevent territories that have unilaterally declared independence - such as Kosovo, Northern Cyprus, Transdniestra, Abkhazia and South Ossetia - from gaining international legitimacy, either in terms of recognition from other states or membership of multilateral organisations. A book on this subject is currently in preparation for Oxford University Press.

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