James Hooper

James Hooper "is a Managing Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group. He is the former director of the Washington office of the International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent non-government global advocacy organization that focuses on conflict early alert, prevention and containment. He also directed ICG’s Balkan programs.

"In his prior capacity as executive director of the Balkan Action Council, a Washington-based non-profit organization, he analyzed the Balkan situation for the media in interviews with the Lehrer Newshour, CNN, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bosnian television, BBC, Voice of America, National Public Radio, Radio Free Europe, and numerous other broadcasting outlets plus frequent interviews with major U.S. and foreign newspapers and news magazines. His frequent public speaking appearances included occasional testimony before Congress. He was the subject of a feature article in the New York Times "Public Lives" series in 1999.

"Previously, as a career United States diplomat with the Foreign Service for 25 years, Mr. Hooper served at assignments in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the 1973 October War; Beirut, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria, during the Lebanon civil war and formative years of the Arab-Israel peace process; Tripoli, Libya, during the Qadhafi-inspired mob attacks against the American Embassy; London, England; Kuwait, where as Deputy Ambassador he negotiated and implemented the naval protection agreement for reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers; and Warsaw, Poland, where as Deputy Ambassador he led the effort to prepare Poland’s post-communist government and military for NATO membership. He also served as the State Department’s director of Canadian Affairs and as diplomat-in-residence at the Political Science Department of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While serving as deputy director of the office of East European and Yugoslav affairs from 1989-91, he was responsible for managing U.S. bilateral relations with the Balkan and Baltic states. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1997.

"Mr. Hooper was the most senior dissenter on Bosnia policy within the Department of State. He met with two secretaries of state, numerous senior Department officials, White House staff members, and gatherings of Foreign Service officers to promote an alternative approach to the Balkan crisis from 1991-1994.

"Mr. Hooper received his Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University in New York and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American University’s School of International Service in Washington, D.C. For the past three summers he has served as a Scholar in Residence with American University's Human Rights Institute."