Robin Shepherd (born 6 January 1968) is a British-born political commentator and analyst. Formerly a senior fellow, running the Europe programme, at

Chatham House Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...

(''The Royal Institute of International Affairs'') in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, he has also held fellowships with a number of leading

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

including the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...

, the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...

, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Shepherd is Executive Director, North America for GLOBSEC, Central and eastern Europe's pre-eminent think tank dedicated to democracy and international security. He previously served as vice president of the

Halifax International Security Forum Halifax International Security Forum (also Halifax Forum or HFX) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a forum and network for international government and military officials, academic exper ...

. Shepherd began his working life as a journalist, in which capacity he worked for

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

''.

Early life and education

Born in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Shepherd attended Ilkley Grammar School, a state school in the north of England. He studied Russian at the

School of Slavonic and East European Studies The UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES ) is a school of University College London (UCL) specializing in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia. It teaches a range of subjects, including the history ...

- which today forms part of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

- and gained a master's degree in political theory from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

Career

In November 2020, Shepherd authored China Vs. Democracy: The Greatest Game, a "handbook for democracies" designed to set out the challenge posed to the world's democracies by a newly assertive China. In the course of the research, he, and the team he led, spoke to more than 250 dignitaries across the world, including several former US secretaries of state, secretaries of defense and heads of the CIA. The handbook has been translated into Chinese and French. The early focus of his work was post-Communist transition in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, such as in his first book, ''Czechoslovakia: The Velvet Revolution and Beyond'' (Palgrave Macmillan/St. Martins Press, 2000), which dealt with the post-communist reform process. His research and commentary have since branched out into international security, transatlantic relations, European politics, the global democracy agenda, the impact of the digital revolution on politics and society, and the relationship between the Western world and the State of Israel. His second book, ''A State Beyond the Pale: Europe's Problem with Israel'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009), was described by one reviewer as "the best book on the Middle East conflict to appear in years". Shepherd has also contributed to, and edited many other books and publications including Belarusian opposition leader

Andrei Sannikov Andrei Olegovich Sannikov (or Andrei Sannikau, be, Андрэй Алегавіч Саннікаў, russian: Андрей Олегович Санников, born 8 March 1954) is a Belarusian politician and activist. In the early 1990s, he headed ...

's biographical account of his time as a political prisoner in KGB jails and labour camps, ''My Story'', which contains a foreword by Nobel Laureate

Svetlana Alexievich Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich (born 31 May 1948) is a Belarusian investigative journalist, essayist and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suf ...

. Before entering the world of think tanks, he was the Moscow Bureau Chief for ''

''. Prior to that he worked for eight years for

in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and London. Shepherd believes he lost his job at

, which has had an awkward relationship over the years with Israel and the Jewish people, due to his expressing a non-hostile position on Israel.

''The Commentator''

Shepherd is the owner/publisher of the political news and commentary website ''The Commentator''. The website's stance is described in the "About" section as "Centre-right internationalist", though Shepherd's own political outlook is said in that section to have moved on: "Owner Robin Shepherd... has developed his thinking to the point that he now regards the old Right-Left dichotomy as redundant. He is working on a book, provisionally entitled ''Realignment: Democracy in the Digital Revolution'', which argues that our inherited democratic structures and thinking are obsolete and that we need to revamp them to suit the changes inaugurated by the digital revolution."

Books

* * *Shepherd, Robin (2020). ''China Vs Democracy: The Greatest Game''. Washington DC. HFX.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, Robin 1968 births Living people British columnists Alumni of University College London Alumni of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies Alumni of the London School of Economics Chatham House people