Marko Prelec

Consulting Senior Analyst, Balkans

Please submit all media inquiries to media@crisisgroup.org or call +32 (0) 2 536 00 71

Crisis Group Role

Marko rejoined Crisis Group in 2020 as Consulting Senior Analyst on the Balkans. Based in The Hague, he covers Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and the other states of the Western Balkans.

Professional Background

Marko has studied and worked on the Balkans since 1990. He investigated and helped prosecute atrocities in the former Yugoslavia with the International Tribunal in The Hague and set up the first war crimes research and analysis unit in the region in Sarajevo in 2005. He first joined Crisis Group as Bosnia Analyst in 2008 and then became the Balkans Project Director from 2009 until the end of the Project in 2013. He founded the Balkans Policy Research Group, now a leading regional think-tank based in Pristina. Holder of a Ph.D. in European history from Yale, he has taught at the United States Naval Academy and at the Central European University.

Areas of Expertise

Post-conflict Reconciliation
International Criminal Justice
Western Balkans

Languages

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
French

Latest Updates

Podcast / Europe & Central Asia 10 May 2022

Changing Dynamics in the Western Balkans

This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker talks to Crisis Group expert Marko Prelec about the precarious situation in the Western Balkans, as Serb separatism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the frozen Kosovo-Serbia dispute continue to stoke regional instability.

Podcast / Europe & Central Asia 12 November 2021

Bosnia Unravelling?

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood and Naz Modirzadeh talk to Balkans expert Marko Prelec about the twin crises facing Bosnia’s multi-ethnic state. They ask if Serbian secessionism and a Croat election boycott could lead to the country’s unravelling a quarter-century after its civil war.

Commentary / Europe & Central Asia 28 April 2017

New Balkan Turbulence Challenges Europe

The Balkans was best known for minority problems. Today, the most bitter conflicts are between parties that appeal to majority ethnic communities. As recent turbulence in Macedonia shows, Eastern Europe could face new dangers if majority populism ends the current stigma against separatism for oppressed small groups.