Andrew Roberts, Lord Roberts of Belgravia
The executives now setting strategy on China exposure, Ukraine risk, and defence-adjacent supply chains face a specific problem: information is abundant, but interpretive depth is rare. Geopolitical events do not announce whether they represent structural shifts or temporary disruption. That distinction requires statecraft literacy of a kind most organisations have never had to develop before.
The capability most boards currently lack in a volatile geopolitical environment is historical depth; Andrew Roberts, Lord Roberts of Belgravia – prize-winning historian, member of the House of Lords, and co-author with General David Petraeus of Conflict – provides executive audiences with the frameworks of statecraft and military strategy to distinguish structural change in the international order from temporary turbulence.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Andrew Roberts
- His book Conflict, co-authored with General David Petraeus and endorsed by Henry Kissinger and General James Mattis as the definitive strategic reference on modern warfare, gives boards access to an analytical framework no single academic or geopolitical consultant can replicate
- His active role in the House of Lords – with direct involvement in parliamentary scrutiny of UK foreign and defence policy – means his geopolitical analysis is formed in real-time legislative engagement, not retrospective commentary
- Across 20 books spanning Napoleon, Wellington, Churchill, and George III, he has built the most extensive body of archival work on strategic leadership under pressure in the English language; audiences receive specific, verifiable cases – not generalised lessons
- His revisionist approach to historical biography, which uses primary sources to challenge received accounts, models the kind of rigorous scepticism towards consensus assumptions that executive teams need when reading volatile geopolitical environments
- As host of the Hoover Institution podcast Secrets of Statecraft, in which he interviews global policymakers and historians on decision-making and strategy, he is an active participant in the geopolitical discourse most relevant to senior leaders – not an observer at distance from it
Biography highlights
- Life peer as Baron Roberts of Belgravia; member of the House of Lords since November 2022
- Bonnie and Tom McCloskey Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Visiting Professor in War Studies, King’s College London
- Author of 20 books translated into 28 languages and awarded 13 literary prizes, including the Wolfson History Prize, the British Army Military Book of the Year Award, the Grand Prix de la Fondation Napoléon, and the Los Angeles Times Biography Prize
- Co-author with General David Petraeus of Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine (2023) – a New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal as the best single-volume study of conventional warfare in the nuclear age
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society; chairman of the Guggenheim-Lehrman Military Book Prize; Lehrman Institute Distinguished Fellow at the New-York Historical Society
- Regular contributor to The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph, and The Wall Street Journal; host of the Hoover Institution podcast Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts
Biography
The executives now making decisions about Ukraine exposure, China risk, and defence-adjacent supply chains face a specific interpretive problem: information is not scarce, but the historical frameworks needed to read it correctly are. Geopolitical events do not arrive labelled as structural shifts or temporary disruption. That distinction is the work of statecraft – and it is what most organisations currently lack.
Andrew Roberts, Lord Roberts of Belgravia, has spent three decades building that capacity as a practising historian, active legislator, and strategic commentator. His work begins where most geopolitical analysis stops – in the archival record, where the patterns of how power moves between states are visible across centuries rather than election cycles. Elevated to the House of Lords in 2022, he engages with UK foreign and defence policy as a participant, not only as an analyst.
His 20 books – including award-winning biographies of Napoleon, Churchill, and George III, translated into 28 languages – are forensic examinations of strategic decision-making under pressure, using primary sources to challenge received accounts. The Wolfson History Prize, the Los Angeles Times Biography Prize, the Grand Prix de la Fondation Napoléon, and the British Army Military Book of the Year Award are among the 13 prizes this body of work has earned.
His most recent book, Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine, co-authored with General David Petraeus, draws direct lines from the Surge in Iraq to drone warfare in Ukraine. Endorsed by Henry Kissinger and General James Mattis as the essential strategic reference for modern warfare, it is the book no single speaker in the geopolitics space could have produced alone. Roberts holds positions at the Hoover Institution at Stanford and the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and hosts the podcast Secrets of Statecraft – conversations with global policymakers on the importance of historical thinking in strategic decisions.
Key speaking topics
- Geopolitical risk and the lessons of statecraft
- Military strategy and the evolution of modern warfare
- Strategic leadership under pressure: historical perspectives
- Decision-making in geopolitical conflict
- Churchill, Napoleon, and the anatomy of strategic leadership
- Power, alliance, and the dynamics of the international order
- War, intelligence, and the future of conflict
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees navigating geopolitical risk and strategic uncertainty
- Financial services and investment leadership teams with significant geopolitical exposure
- Government, defence, and national security audiences
- Senior conference delegates in sectors shaped by geopolitical volatility – energy, infrastructure, and defence-adjacent industries
Audience outcomes
- A historical framework for distinguishing structural geopolitical shifts from cyclical turbulence – directly applicable to boardroom risk discussions
- Concrete case studies of how past leaders navigated warfare, power transitions, and strategic miscalculation, and what separated those who succeeded from those who did not
- A sharper understanding of the current conflict environment, drawing on analysis co-developed with General David Petraeus across more than 70 years of post-1945 warfare
- Improved pattern recognition for interpreting alliance dynamics, adversarial behaviour, and the strategic role of intelligence and morale
- A working vocabulary of statecraft that senior leaders can use to frame geopolitical risk discussions with boards, investors, and policy stakeholders
Videos
Testimonials
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |