James Pettifer is a British academic, author and journalist who has specialised in Balkan affairs.
He was born in 1949 in Hereford and was educated at King's School, Worcester, and Hertford College, Oxford.
Pettifer has travelled extensively in Greece, Turkey 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 and the Wall Street 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.
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. Pettifer is a professor at the Conflict Studies Research Centre 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.
Pettifer's published work includes: