Peter Frankopan

Professor of global history, University of Oxford, distinguished fellow, Blavatnik School of Government

Peter Frankopan is a world-renowned historian and bestselling author whose work has helped reshape modern understanding of global history. He is professor of global history at the University of Oxford and a distinguished fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government.

He is also UNESCO professor of Silk Roads Studies at King’s College, Cambridge. His books include The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, a Sunday Times Book of the Decade and New York Times bestseller, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was named one of the 25 most important books translated into Chinese, alongside Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby.

His most recent book, The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, has also been a major international bestseller. It explores how the natural world and the climate have shaped both the planet and human history, and what the past can tell us about the profound environmental changes taking place today.

A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Royal Asiatic Society, Frankopan is also president of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Alongside his academic and writing work, he advises governments, multilateral organisations and corporations around the world on geopolitics, risk and the lessons history can offer for navigating a period of profound global change.