Team type: Programme leads

Ian Bancroft has been based in the former Yugoslavia for over a decade. He has worked for the EU in Kosovo, and the OSCE in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has written extensively about Balkan affairs for a variety of publications, including The Guardian and Radio Free Europe. He has lectured on conflict and peacebuilding, and recently published a book, ‘Dragon’s Teeth: Tales from North Kosovo’. He authored a chapter entitled ‘Reconciliation through Recognition’ in ‘The Yugoslav Example: Violence, War and Difficult Ways Towards Peace’, and has also written travel articles for, among others, Wine Spectator, The Independent and Open Democracy.

Bashar is Country Manager for Libya. Previously, Bashar worked as a National Professional Officer within the Security Sector Advisory and Coordination Division at UNSMIL, where he played a prominent role in providing the team with local perspectives on the Libyan situation. Bashar holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems from the Arab Academy for Science and Technology.