Robin Shepherd

Robin Shepherd    (spook)
Born	6 January 1968
Nationality	UK
Alma mater	UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London School of Economics
Member of	Center for Strategic and International Studies, German Marshall Fund, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Former Moscow Bureau Chief for The Times now working for intelligence think tanks.

Robin Shepherd is a British-born political commentator and analyst. Formerly a senior fellow, running the Europe programme at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London, he has also held fellowships with a number of leading think tanks in the United States and Europe including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is vice president of the Halifax International Security Forum, He has written for the intelligence think tank the Henry Jackson Society.

Shepherd began his working life as a journalist, presumably with close ties to his later employers, for Reuters and The Times.

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 - which today forms part of University College London - and gained a master's degree in political theory from the London School of Economics.

Career

Before entering the world of think tanks, he was the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Times. Prior to that he worked for eight years for Reuters in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and London.

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 and Russia, 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. Shepherd has also contributed to, and edited many other books and publications including Belarusian opposition leader Andrei Sannikov'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.

Shepherd believes he lost his job at Chatham House due to his expressing too much support of 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 (2000). Czechoslovakia: the velvet revolution and beyond. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780312230685.
• Shepherd, Robin (2010). A state beyond the pale: Europe's problem with Israel. London: Phoenix. ISBN 9780753827130.
• Shepherd, Robin (2020). China Vs Democracy: The Greatest Game. Washington DC. HFX.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
A World in Flux: The Future of Democracy Europe and the Middle East	12 September 2017	13 September 2017	Georgia Tbilisi	Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia with a host of spooky participants
Bratislava Global Security Forum/2022				"Building Resilience in a Divided World"
Halifax International Security Forum/2009	20 November 2009	22 November 2009	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada in November 2009
Halifax International Security Forum/2010	20 November 2010	22 November 2010	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada in November 2010
Halifax International Security Forum/2011	18 November 2011	20 November 2011	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada in November 2010
Halifax International Security Forum/2012	21 November 2012	23 November 2012	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada discussing the "New Normal" and Western nations' "special burden".
Halifax International Security Forum/2013	2013	2013	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada in 2013
Halifax International Security Forum/2014	21 November 2014	23 November 2014	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada in November 2014
Halifax International Security Forum/2015			Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada
Halifax International Security Forum/2016	18 November 2016	21 November 2016	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada
Halifax International Security Forum/2017	17 November 2017	19 November 2017	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada
Halifax International Security Forum/2018	16 November 2008	18 November 2008	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada
Halifax International Security Forum/2019	22 November 2019	24 November 2019	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada
Halifax International Security Forum/2020	20 November 2020	22 November 2020	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Annual spooky conference in November, this year held online instead of in Canada due to Covid lockdowns.
Halifax International Security Forum/2021	19 November 2021	21 November 2021	Canada Halifax Nova Scotia	Spooky conference in Canada in November 2021

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 31.08.2021.
Wikipedia is not affiliated with Wikispooks.   Original page source here