Peter Frankopan is a British historian and author. He is the author of the best-selling book The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, which has been translated into over 30 languages. He is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and a Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He has written extensively on the history of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes, and has lectured at universities and institutions around the world. He is a frequent contributor to The Times, The Guardian, and The Financial Times.