Journalism

Robert has published many articles, opinion pieces, commentaries, and reviews for newspapers and magazines on history, current affairs, literature, and art, including for Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, New Statesman, Prospect Magazine, South China Morning Post, The Independent, Times Higher Education, and the Times Literary Supplement. He has also appeared on radio and his work has been widely cited in the media. Below is a selection of his journalism.

In 2020, Robert collaborated with Bloomberg on the short film Can We Overcome Pandemics?

2024

‘Fear, Truth and the Spectacular History of Propaganda’ in Bradley Davies, Propagandopolis: Propaganda from Around the World (Fuel Publishing, October 2024).

 

2023

‘China and the rule of fear,’ Prospect Magazine (September 2023). Read here.


2022

‘Shutdown: How Covid shook the world’s economy,’ EH.net (Economic History Association, 2022). Read here.


2021

‘Are you ready for the return to in-person teaching,’ Times Higher Education (September 16, 2021).

2020

‘Who needs the arts in a crisis?’ Times Higher Education (December 21, 2020).

 

‘The war of the worlds: COVID-19 and pandemic belligerence,’ Items [Social Science Research Council] (August 13, 2020). Read here.

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    ‘Past pandemics exposed China’s weaknesses: The current one highlights its strengths,’ Foreign Affairs (March 22, 2020).


    ‘The contagious power of fear,’ New Statesman (March 11, 2020).


    ‘Coronavirus: The low tech of the high tech,’ Somatosphere (March 6, 2020). Read here.


    ‘Why the World Health Organization is calling coronavirus an “infodemic,"' Prospect Magazine (March 4, 2020). Read here.


    ‘COVID-19 infodemic: To stem the tide of panic we need to understand people’s fears, not condemn them,’ South China Morning Post (March 1, 2020).


    ‘Can We Overcome Pandemics?’ Bloomberg (February 24, 2020).


    ‘The COVID-19 outbreak has shown we need strategies to manage panic during epidemics,’ British Medical Journal (February 21, 2020). Read here.


    ‘Coronavirus is testing the limits of China’s – and Hong Kong’s – preparedness,’ South China Morning Post (February 14, 2020).


    ‘A health emergency is no time to sideline the medical humanities,’ Times Higher Education (February 10, 2020).

2019

‘In a critical hour for Hong Kong, universities can help us find our way back to humanity,’ South China Morning Post (September 6, 2019).

2018

‘The big picture: Dengue in Hong Kong,’ South China Morning Post (September 12, 2018) [with Ria Sinha].

 

‘The new tech of epidemic surveillance: A magic bullet?’ Asia Global Online (May 3, 2018). Read here.

2016

‘Where has SARS gone? The Strange Case of the Disappearing Coronavirus,’ Somatosphere (June 8, 2016). Read here.



‘On Epidemics in Modern Asia,’ Fifteen Eighty Four (CUP) (August 12, 2016). Read here.

2009

‘A dose of humanities is good medicine for all,’ South China Morning Post (12 October 2009).

2008

‘Beware the Olympic ideal,’ Guardian (April 8, 2008). Read here.

 

‘Alien invaders,’ South China Morning Post (April 7, 2008).

Archive

‘Carte Blanche,’ Times Literary Supplement (April 7, 2000).

 

‘George Papadopoulos,’ The Independent (June 28, 1999).

 

‘Consuming nations,’ Times Higher Education Supplement (August 28, 1998).

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    ‘Tuesday’s book: True Stories by Lev Razgon,’ The Independent (May 5, 1998).


    ‘Tsar to commissar,’ The Independent (November 29, 1997). 


    ‘In the front of the cab,’ Times Literary Supplement (October 4, 1996).


    ‘Buried treasures: The Faculty of Useless Knowledge,’ New Statesman (April 5, 1996).


    ‘Freedom in a mess: Don’t Die Before You’re Dead,’ New Statesman (October 20, 1995).


    ‘Moles for the truth: Russians remember Stalin,’ New Statesman (September 8, 1995).


    ‘Not so saintly Gorby: The Fall of the Soviet Empire,’ New Statesman (May 26, 1995).


    ‘Thieves’ world: Russia after Communism,’ New Statesman (March 31, 1995). 


    ‘Seeing red: Witness of the Russian Revolution,’ New Statesman (August 26, 1994).


    ‘A good laugh from the era of stagnation,’ The Independent (19 July 1994).


    ‘After empire: Between Marx and Muhammad,’ New Statesman (April 15, 1994). 


    ‘At home and homesick in the Caucasus,’ The Independent (December 22, 1993). 


    ‘Cowboy dreams,’ The Independent (October 16, 1993). 


    ‘Open boxes: The Gingerbread Race,’ New Statesman (September 17, 1993)


    ‘Killing fields:  The conquest and settlement of Siberia,’ New Statesman (March 26, 1993). 


    ‘Peeled eggs and a mania for the telephone,’ The Independent (February 20, 1993).


    ‘Arch-villain: Stalin’s first lieutenant,’ New Statesman (January 21, 1993).


    ‘Doctor in the penal colony: A Journey to Sakhalin,’ The Independent (January 16, 1993).


    As a student in the 1990s, Robert wrote the obituaries of many leading Greek cultural figures for The Independent, among them the poets Nikos Gatos, Nikos Karouzos, Yannis Ritsos, and Nikiforos Vrettakos.