Alida Vračić

Alida Vračić is a political scientist (M.Sc, University College London), a co-founder and the executive directress of a think tank “Populari”, a Bosnia based think tank specializing in the European Integration of the Western Balkans region, politics, good governance, civil society and post-conflict democratization processes. Prior to founding Populari, Alida worked with the European Stability Initiative (ESI), a think tank based in Berlin, on projects related to transparency and good governance in the region. As a young lawyer, Ms. Vracic, also worked for the State Court prosecutor’s team and at the Human Rights Commission within the Constitutional Court of Bosnia. She led several Balkan-wide projects at the Human Rights Centre at Sarajevo University and at the Spanish Institutional Programme-program for the region wide institutional co-operation.

She holds a M.Sc. in international public policy from the University College London, a B.A. from the Law School at the University of Sarajevo and she completed the executive education program of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government- Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations. Ms. Vracic has also studied criminal proceedings and the penal system in Graz, Austria.

Ms. Vracic won several prestigious scholarships/fellowships (Chevening scholarship, London, UCL, Merkator stifftung fellowship and Marshall Memorial Fellowship, GMF). She has been cited as a regional expert in numerous Balkan and the European media: The Economist, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Der Standard, Reuters, Deutsche Welle, as well as North American news outlets.

Areas of Expertise: European Integrations, Western Balkans politics, Civil society, Non –governmental organizations, Good governance, and Transitional countries