Professor Peter Frankopan
About
Professor Peter Frankopan specialises in the history of global connections. In particular, he works on the histories of the Silk Roads, on Russia/Ukraine, Central Asia, China, Iran and the Middle East, and South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
As a historian of exchange from antiquity to the present day, Professor Frankopan works on networks, trade, religion, language and migration, as well as the histories of cities, states and empires and on contemporary geopolitics. Research focuses on written sources, material culture, climate archives, genetic data and statistical modelling.
Expertise
- The Byzantine Empire
- Russia, Ukraine, the Near and Middle East, China and South and Southeast Asia
- Central Asia and the Silk Roads
- The Middle Ages
- The Islamic World
- The histories of cities, states and empires
- Contemporary geopolitics
Selected publications
Media experience
Professor Frankopan has extensive media experience including BBC TV documentaries with Simon Sebag-Montefiore and Bettany Hughes; TV documentaries on Ivan the Terrible and on the Vikings; and radio, including BBC Radio 4's Today.
Recent media work
- Iran and the US: this is geopolitical poker at its most dangerous (The Times, 2026)
- "Europe could be next on Trump's menu" (Stern, 2026)
- Peter Frankopan (Oxford): "We think Donald Trump is a buffoon, but he has a real strategy" (L'Express, 2026)
- What’s on Vladimir Putin’s reading list? (Financial Times, 2025)
- How Did a City of 10 Million People Nearly Run Out of Water? (The New York Times, 2025)
- "The struggle between the two superpowers will never end" (Handelsblatt, 2025)
- 'The US needs Europe': Foreign policy experts push back on new White House strategy (CNN, 2025)
- What price culture? Inside the £3bn Louvre Abu Dhabi (The Times, 2017)
Languages
English, French, Italian, Swedish, Croatian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch