Robert Lambart Harvey (born 21 August 1953) is a British Conservative Party politician, journalist and well known historian and author.

Education

Harvey was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and later at Christ Church,

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

where he obtained a BA in 1974 and MA in 1978.''Who's Who'', London,

A&C Black A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing ''Who's Who'' since 1849 and the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' between 1827 and 1903. It offers a wide variety of boo ...

Journalism

Harvey was foreign affairs lead writer for the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' (1987-1991) and assistant editor of ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' (1981-1983).

Politics

Harvey first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, at Caernarvon in October 1974, where he was beaten by the future leader of

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

Dafydd Wigley Dafydd Wynne Wigley, Baron Wigley, (born David Wigley; 1 April 1943) is a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1991 to 2000. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon from 19 ...

Five years later ''Five Years Later'' is a collaborative album by American jazz guitarists Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie (guitarist), John Abercrombie, recorded in March 1981 and released on ECM Records, ECM February the following year.Merioneth Merionethshire, or Merioneth ( or '), was one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was located in the north-west of Wales. Name 'Merioneth' is an anglicisation of the Welsh placename ''Mei ...

, once again being beaten by a Plaid Cymru incumbent,

Dafydd Elis-Thomas Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, (; 18 October 1946 – 7 February 2025) was a Welsh politician who served as the leader of Plaid Cymru from 1984 to 1991 and represented the Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency in the Senedd from 199 ...

. In the Conservative landslide of 1983 general election, he was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

as MP for Clwyd South-West. He became a member of the House of Commons

Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Affairs Committee may refer to: * Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development * Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade * Foreign Affairs Committee of t ...

. He served for one term before his defeat at the 1987 election by the Labour candidate Martyn Jones.

Think tanks

He was a member of the

Wilton Park Wilton Park is an executive agency of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office providing a global forum for strategic discussion. Based since 1951 at Wiston House in Sussex, it organises over 70 dialogues a year in the UK and overs ...

council (1984-1988) and a member of the advisory board of the Woodrow Wilson Chair of International Politics (1985-1992). He is an active member of the Caux Round Table.

Author

Robert Harvey is a prolific historian and author. In 2007 he edited and introduced the book entitled ''The World Crisis: The Way Forward after Iraq'' with works by

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

George Shultz George Pratt Shultz ( ; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held f ...

Geoffrey Howe Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, (20 December 1926 – 9 October 2015), known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to ...

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine se ...

Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński (, ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter's National Securi ...

Brent Scowcroft Brent Scowcroft (; March 19, 1925August 6, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, and a two-time National Security Advisor (United States), United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under Georg ...

Sam Nunn Samuel Augustus Nunn Jr. (born September 8, 1938) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Georgia (1972–1997) as a member of the Democratic Party. After leaving Congress, Nunn co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initi ...

, Dick Lugar as well as himself. He has been translated into several languages and some of his titles have been widely read. The 2009 British film '' Endgame'' directed by

Pete Travis Pete Travis is a British television and film director. His work includes ''Cold Feet'' (1999), '' The Jury'' (2002) and ''Omagh'' (2004) for television and '' Vantage Point'' (2008), '' Endgame'' (2009), '' Dredd'' (2012) and '' City of Tiny Li ...

is based upon Harvey's book ''The Fall of Apartheid: The Inside History from Smuts to Mbeki''.

Books

*''Portugal: Birth of a Democracy'' (1978) *''Blueprint of a Democracy'' (1978) *''Fire Down Below: A Study of Latin America'' (1988) *''The Undefeated: The Rise, Fall and Rise of Modern Japan'' (1994) *''The Return of the Strong: The Drift to Global Disorder'' (1995) *''Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor'' (1998) *''Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence'' (2000) *''Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain'' (2000) *''A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence'' (2001) *''The Fall of Apartheid: The Inside History from Smuts to Mbeki'' (2002) *''Comrades: The Rise and Fall of World Communism'' (2003) *''Global Disorder'' (2003) *''A Short History of Communism'' (2004) *''The War of Wars: The great European Conflict 1793-1815'' (2007) *''The World Crisis: The Way Forward after Iraq'', ed. (2007) *''The Mavericks: The Military Commanders who Change the Course of History'' (2008) *''American Shogun: MacArthur, Hirohito and the American Duel with Japan'' (2009) *''Romantic Revolutionary: Simon Bolivar and the Struggle for Independence in Latin America'' (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Robert 1953 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford UK MPs 1983–1987 British writers