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Wilson Center Announces Southeast Europe Project Board of Advisors

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars announced today the appointment of the seven-member board of advisors of the Southeast Europe Project.

News Release Release No. 44-06
September 20, 2006

Wilson Center Announces Southeast Europe Project Board of Advisors

WASHINGTON— The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars announced today the appointment of the seven-member board of advisors of the Southeast Europe Project. The Project was established at the Wilson Center to promote scholarly research and informed debate about the full range of U.S. political, commercial, and security issues and interests in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and the eastern Mediterranean region.

"I look forward to working with all members of the board of advisors for the Southeast Europe Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center," remarked Lee H. Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center. "This group has extraordinary talent and its members are respected experts on the multitude of foreign policy issues we confront throughout the Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean regions. Working together with the Center's West European Studies Program and its East European Studies Program, we have assembled a valuable team that provides comprehensive coverage of a critically important and broad region."

The board of advisors is comprised of the following individuals:

Henri Barkey, Ph.D., is chairman of the Lehigh University Department of International Relations, specializing in Middle East domestic politics. The author of dozens of books and articles on Turkey and the Kurds, Barkey also serves as a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, the Institute for Strategic and International Studies, and the Middle East Institute.

John Koumoulides, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history at Ball State University, has published numerous books on ancient Athens and Rome, Byzantine history, and modern Greece. He is an Honorary Fellow for Life at Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford.

Markos Kounalakis (Vice Chairman) is president of The Washington Monthly magazine, and a print and network broadcast journalist and author who has covered wars and revolutions, both civil and technological. He serves on the Board of Visitors at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the Board of Advisors at Georgetown College, and previously served as chairman of Internews Network, vice chairman of the California State World Trade Commission, and on the Board of Directors of the Western Policy Center.

John R. Lampe, Ph.D., is professor of history at the University of Maryland. The author of numerous books and articles on Balkan history, Lampe previously served as a State Department foreign service officer, adjunct chair of the Foreign Service Institute's Balkan Area Studies program, and director of the Wilson Center's East European Studies program. He has just completed his most recent book Balkans into Southeastern Europe: A Century of War and Transition (Palgrave, 2006).

James A. Regas is senior managing partner of the real estate and banking law firm of Regas, Frezados & Dallas LLP in Chicago, Illinois. He is chairman of Western Springs National Bank, vice chairman of Mutual Bank, and previously served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Western Policy Center.

John Sitilides (Chairman) is principal at Trilogy Advisors, a government relations firm in Washington, D.C. He also serves as course chair at the Foreign Service Institute's Greece/Cyprus Advanced Area Studies Program, and previously served as executive director of the Western Policy Center from 1998 until the 2004 merger with the Wilson Center.

Angelo K. Tsakopoulos is chairman and chief executive officer of AKT Development Corporation, one of the largest and most successful real estate development firms in northern California. A philanthropist and benefactor of the arts, he is also a generous, strong and sustained supporter, in addition to the Southeast Europe Project, of major academic programs at the Universities of California, Berkeley and Davis, the McGeorge School of Law, California State University (Sacramento), and San Francisco State University. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Western Policy Center.

The Southeast Europe Project was established in January 2005, after the merger of the Western Policy Center with the Wilson Center. Working in conjunction with the Wilson Center's East European and West European Studies Programs, the Southeast Europe Project's scholarly research and public affairs programs focus on regional and functional issues centered on Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, and Bulgaria, with particular attention to European Union enlargement and NATO expansion and realignment in the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.

A central project component is the Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Lecture Series. This series supplements the Center's ongoing Director's Forum Series and initiatives of the other European Programs, and provides an additional forum for leaders on and from the region as well as distinguished scholars who study, understand, and manifest democracy and reason – among Classical Hellenism's many principles – in contemporary statecraft and society.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds, engaged in the study of national and world affairs as a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue. Lee H. Hamilton, former chairman of the House International Relations Committee, is president and director of the Wilson Center. The Center's Board of Trustees is chaired by Joseph B. Gildenhorn, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland (1989-1993).

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